RHAMNACEAE. 255 



emarginate or acutish ; sepals ovate, ciliate ; petals suborbieular, about 2 mm. 

 long, ciliate, about as long as the sepals; drupes ovoid, black, 5-7 mm. long. 



Coppices and scrub-lands, Andros, New Providence, Eleuthera, Cat Island, Wat- 

 ling's Island, Great Exuma, Long Island, Acklin's Island, Crooked Island, Fortune 

 Island and Inagua : Florida ; Cuba to Porto Rico ; St. Martin and Anguilla ; Ja- 

 maica. WHITE IEONWOOD. EBONY. 



Order 15. RHAMNALES. 



Shrubs, vines, or small trees, with nearly always alternate leaves. 

 FloAvers small, regular. Sepals mostly more or less united. Petals dis- 

 tinct or wanting. Stamens as many as the sepals or calyx-lobes and alter- 

 nate with them, opposite the petals when these are present. Ovary com- 

 pound, superior; ovules erect. 



Shrubs, small trees, or vines ; petals 4 or 5, or none ; fruit a drupe or capsule. 



Fam. 1. RHAMNACEAE. 

 Vines, climbing by tendrils, rarely shrubs ; petals caducous ; 



fruit a berry. Fam. 2. VITACEAE. 



Family 1. RHAMNACEAE Dumort. 

 BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny. Leaves simple, 

 stipulate, mainly alternate, often 3-5-nerved. Stipules small, deciduous. 

 Inflorescence commonly of cymes or panicles. Flowers small, regular, 

 perfect or polygamous. Calyx-limb 4-5-toothed or 4-5-lobed. Petals 4-5, 

 inserted on the calyx, or none. Stamens 4-5, inserted with the petals 

 and opposite them; anthers short, versatile. Disk fleshy. Ovary sessile, 

 free from or immersed in the disk, 2-5- (often 3-) celled; ovules 1 or 2 in 

 each cavity, anatropous. Fruit often 3-celled. Seeds solitary in the 

 cavities, erect ; endosperm fleshy, rarely none ; embryo large ; cotyledons 

 flat. About 50 genera and 600 species, -of temperate and warm regions. 



Fruit drupaceous. 



Petals none ; plants unarmed. 



Endosperm ruminated : pit of the drupe thick-walled. 1. Reynosia. 



Endosperm none ; pit of the drupe thin-walled. 2. Krugiodendron. 



Petals 5 ; young twigs spiny. 3. Sarcomphalus. 



Fruit dry, separating into nutlets. 



Trees and shrubs ; fruit seated in the calyx. 4. Colubrina. 



Woody vines ; nutlets winged. 5. Oouania. 



1. REYNOSIA Griseb. Cat. PL Cub. 33. 18^6. 



Shrubs or small trees, with entire short-petioled opposite leaves, and 

 small perfect yellowish green flowers in axillary clusters. Calyx-lobes valvate, 

 spreading. Disk fleshy. Petals none. Stamens 5; filaments subulate. Ovary 

 2-3-celled; styles short and thick; stigma 2-3-lobed; ovules 1 in each cavity, 

 erect. Fruit a drupe with thin flesh and a hard stone. [Dedicated to Alvaro 

 Eeynoso, a Cuban chemist and agriculturist, who died in 1SSS'.] About 9 species, 

 of the West Indies and Florida. Type species: Reynosia retusa Griseb. 



Leaves obovate to elliptic ; petioles 1.5-3 mm. ; drupe subglo- 



bose or ovoid. 1- R- septentnonahs. 



Leaves oblong to lanceolate ; petioles 5-7 mm. ; drupe ellipsoid. 2. R. Northropiana. 



