Shrubs or small trees with opposite, simple, petioled leaves. Flowers light-colored, small but in large, conspicuous, flat-topped clusters at the ends of the branches; blooming in early summer. Fruit small, 1-seeded drupes with flattened stones; ripe in autumn.
| * Leaves distinctly palmately lobed | 1. | ||
| * Leaves pinnately veined and not lobed. (A.) | |||
| A. Coarsely dentated | 2. | ||
| A. Finely serrated. (B.) | |||
| B. Leaves long-acuminated | 3. | ||
| B. Obtuse or slightly pointed | 4. | ||
V. Ópulus.
1. Vibúrnum Ópulus, L. (Cranberry-tree.) Leaves palmately veined and strongly 3-lobed, broadly wedge-shaped or truncate at base, the spreading lobes mostly toothed on the sides and entire in the notches; petiole with 2 glands at the apex. Fruit in peduncled clusters, light red and quite sour (whence the name "Cranberry-tree"). A nearly smooth, small tree or shrub, 4 to 12 ft. high; wild along streams, and cultivated under the name of Snowball-tree or Guelder Rose. In this variety the flowers have all become sterile and enlarged. Vibúrnum acerifòlium (Arrow-wood) has also lobed leaves, and is much more common. This species never forms a tree, and has dark-colored berries.
V. dentàtum.
2. Vibúrnum dentàtum, L. (Arrow-wood.) Leaves, pale green, broadly ovate, somewhat heart-shaped at base, coarsely and sharply dentated, strongly veined and often with hairy tufts in the axils; petioles rather long and slender. Fruit ¼ in. long, in peduncled clusters, blue or purple; a cross-section of the stone between kidney-and horseshoe-shaped. A shrub or small tree, 5 to 15 ft. high, with ash-colored bark; in wet places.
