**132/7-Tree Talk-Elder.

This is usually found as a hedgerow shrub, it occasionally grows as a small tree.  Its leaves compound   with two or three pairs of toothed leaflets & a terminal leaflet. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs on the twigs.  This shrub is the earliest to open out in the spring, its ragged-looking buds are green in January or February.  It produces large flat bunches of tiny white flowers with five petals, these succeeded by small black berries.  Used for concocting a home-made wine.  In the Autumn the leaves turn yellow tinged with red.  The twigs are pale & rough & hollow, containing a white pith.  Country boys find them useful for making the useful for making   “penny whistles”.