Rhamniis catharticiis, 

 THE PURGING BUCKTHORN. 



Synonymes. 



Rhamnus catharticus, 



Nerpran cathartique, 

 Abfiihrender Kreu2dorn, 

 Ramno catartico, 

 Ramiio purgative, 

 White Thorn, 

 Buckthorn, 



' LiNNJEtJs, Species Plantarum. 



De Candolle, Prodromus. 



Don, Miller's Dictionary. 

 ( Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 

 (^ ToRREY AND Gray, Flora of North America. 



France. 



Germany. 



Italy. 



Spain. 



Modern Greece. 



Britain and Anglo-America. 



Derivation. The specific name, catharticus, is derived from the Greek kathairo, to purge, from the medicinal nature of the 

 berries of this tree. 



Engravings. Woodville, Medical Botany, pi. 114; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, ii., figure 198, etv., pi. 70, and the 

 figures below. 



Specific Characters. Erect. Leaves ovate, toothed. Flowers la fascicles, polygamo-dioecious. Berries 

 4-seeded, rather globose. Don, Miller's Diet. 



Description. 



HE Rhamnus catharti- 

 cus is a deciduous shrub 

 or low tree, growing, 



ic^^^^ when wild, to a height of 



eight or ten feet, and from twelve to fifteen feet 

 in a state of cultivation. It naturally partakes 

 the character of a bush, unless it is carefully- 

 trained to a single stem. Its branches are 

 numerous and irregular, the young shoots of 

 v/hich have a smooth, grayish-brown bark; 

 but the older branches are rough and armed 

 with short thorns. The leaves on old trees are 

 ribbed, smooth, about an inch in length, and 

 from half an inch to three-fourths of an inch 

 in width, and of a bright-green colour ; but on 

 young plants, or in hedges, they are often found 

 from two inches to two inches and a half in 

 length, and nearly as broad as they are long. 

 The flowers, which appear in May and June, are of a yellowish-green colour. 

 They are, for the most part, hermaphrodite, clustered when grown wild, but 

 fewer and nearly solitary in a state of cultivation. The berries are of a bluish- 

 black, globular in their form, with four cells, and as many seeds, and are ripe in 

 Britain and the northern parts of the United States in October. It often remains 

 on the tree after the leaves have fallen. 



Geography a?id History. The Rhamnus catharticus is indigenous to Europe 

 and the north of Asia. In Britain it is found native in the woods, and according 

 to Pallas, it is common in the southern parts of Siberia. It has also become 

 indigenous in the vicinity of Boston, in Massachusetts, and near West Point, 



