272 Sambucus nigra
Somerset^40 ), dropsy and kidney trouble (Cambridgeshire,^41 Berwickshire,^42
Fife^43 ), toothache (Devon,^44 ‘South Wales’,^45 Gloucestershire^46 ), gout (Nor-
folk,^47 Cumbria^48 ), sprains (Gloucestershire,^49 Berwickshire^50 ), eye troubles
(Hampshire,^51 Orkney^52 ), constipation (Devon,^53 the Highlands^54 ), jaundice
(Herefordshire^55 ), measles (Suffolk^56 ), tonsillitis (Devon^57 ) and piles (Sus-
sex^58 ). A wine made from the flowers has also been widely drunk as prophy-
laxis in Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire, and in the former’s Forest of
Dean is remembered as a cure-all which was taken for a day or two before
calling a medical practitioner—for if it failed to clear up the trouble in ques-
tion, then it could only be that something serious was afoot.^59
Ireland has yielded records from up to three counties for all the above
ailments in the list above except insect bites, sprains, constipation, measles,
tonsillitis and piles. Epilepsy (Cavan,^60 Cork^61 ) and indigestion (Sligo,^62 Car-
low^63 ) are the only two noted that are additional.
Sambucus ebulus Linnaeus
dwarf elder
central and southern Europe, western Asia; introduced into North
America, Madeira
(Folk credentials questionable) Much rarer thanSambucus nigraand reput-
edly with similar but stronger properties,S. ebulusdoes not appear to set
good seed in the British Isles, depending for its persistence on adventitious
shoots. It presumably therefore owes its presence where it occurs in the British
Isles to deliberate introduction, though it is possible that it was fertile at some
hotter period in the past. The name danewort long applied to it in many
places and an apparent association with prehistoric sites have occasioned fre-
quent suggestions in the literature that it was brought across from the Euro-
pean mainland by one or more waves of early invaders for some specific util-
itarian purpose. According to John Parkinson,^64 though, it owes that name
merely to its strong purging effect: those who took it medicinally were spoken
of as ‘troubled with the Danes’. Certainly it was a herb well known to the
Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and consequently recommended in herbals.
Curiously, although the populations of the plant in Berkshire are on
record as having been heavily raided by herb collectors early in the nine-
teenth century (on account of its popularity for treating dropsy),^65 the only
records traced of actual folk uses are from remote areas where it must always
have been extremely scarce or even non-existent in the wild. In Aberdeenshire
it was noted by James Robertson on his 1768 tour as in use for plasters for dis-
pelling tumours,^66 and in Londonderry—the sole Irish record—it was