Guelder Rose , the name of a garden form of viburnum opulus, a shrub which in its wild state is common in the cooler parts of America, Europe, and Asia. It grows with an upright habit from 2 to 10 ft. high, has opposite three-lobed leaves, and each branch terminated by a broad cluster (cyme) of white flowers, the majority of which are small and perfect, while those upon the margin of the cluster have corollas many times larger than the others, and showy, but, having neither stamens nor pistil, are sterile; the perfect flowers are succeeded by a berry-like spherical fruit having one flat smooth stone; it is bright red, very acid, and is sometimes cooked with sugar under the name of high or bush cranberry. The wild shrub is worth cultivating, as its flowers are pleasing, its bright fruit showy, and its leaves in autumn turn to a dark crimson. In the guelder rose all the flowers of the cluster are like the marginal ones of ; the wild plant, and the cymes become spherical masses of crowded "white petals, which have given to it the popular name, and the one most used in this country, of snowball, and with the French of boule de neige. The garden form is supposed to have originated in Gelderland, but it has been so long in cultivation that its history is obscure.

A form with variegated foliage is cultivated, and there has recently been introduced a variety with very large flower clusters as V. macrocepha-lum. The Japanese viburnum plicatum has finer foliage and flowers than the common plant. All are of the easiest culture.

Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus).