THORNLESS SHRUBS 259 



8 8 Leaf -scars broad and short , 

 nearly elliptical. Leaves not 

 hoary. Flowers not pink and 

 fruit not a pome. 



A Buds devoid of scales, hairy; 

 twigs red-brown passing to 

 greyish. Leaves elliptic, thin, 

 smooth, with pinnate curved 

 venation. Flowers small, white, 

 in tufts. Fruits red to black 

 drupes. 



Rhamnus Frangula, L. Alder Buckthorn (Fig. 130). 

 A dark, erect, besom-branched shrub, up to 12 feet or so 

 in height, with numerous nodulose dwarf-shoots. Differs 

 from R. catharticus in its alternate leaves, lack of thorns, 

 &c. (see p. 232). 



A A Buds scaly, smooth or nearly 

 so; twigs olive to brown and 

 slightly angular. Leaves ovate, 

 nearly glabrous and not curved- 

 veined. Flowers rosaceous; 

 fruit a black drupe. 



Prunus domestica, L. Plum. Shrub or bushy small 

 tree up to 30 feet or more in height, passing into Prunus 

 spinosa and its variety insititia, especially when these are, 

 as sometimes happens, devoid of thorns. 



Thornless forms of Rhamnus catharticus and of Cratce- 

 gus Oxyacantha will also come here (see pp. 232 3). 



ft Loosely or sparsely branched shrubs, with 

 long erect wand-like or switch-like withy 

 twigs, often as suckers. 



Long shoots with the buds, leaf -scars and[Foi(Q 

 leaves in two rows, distichous, truly alter- see P- 261 

 nate. 



l~~l Branches glistening red-brown to greyish, 

 the periderm peeling in papery films as 



172 



