TRELEASE — N. AM. RHAMNACE^. 365. 



RHAMNUS, L.— .Shrubs or stnall trees, with alternate or more or less 

 opposite pinnately veined leaves,, and small flowers in sessile or short- 

 peduncled axillary umbels. — Gen. 265; Gray, Gen. ii. pi. 16S; Benth. & 

 Hook. i. 377. — Includes Frajigula., Tourn , etc. — About 65 species, mostly 

 in the warmer parts of Europe, Asia, and America. 



* Flowers mostly polygamo-dicecious, without a common peduncle; seeds more or less 

 deeply grooved down the back (except in R. alnifolia), the raphe lying in the groove; 

 cotyledons rather thick, curved with the seed. — § Eurhamnus. 



'*~ Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, often pungently toothed; flowers 4-nicrous; 

 fruit red ; cocci widely dehiscent on the inner angle. 



1. R. CROCEA, Nutt. — Spreading shrub with rather red bark, the diva- 

 ricate puberulent or glabrate twigs forming blunt spines; leaves fascicled 

 or alternate, glossy, the lower surface mostly bronzed, glabrous, or some- 

 what puberulent on the petiole and midrib below, quarter-inch to 3 in. 

 long, subrotund to broadly ovate or elliptical, emarginate to mucronate- 

 acuminate. glandular-dentate or bidenticulate ; flowers mostly (but not 

 always) apetalous; fruit 4 to 6 mm. long, i- to 3-seeded. — Torr. & Gr. 

 Fl. (1S3S) i. 261 ; t\"atson, Index, 169; Mrs. Curran, Proc. Cal. Acad. 2 

 ser. i. 251. — California and Arizona. 



Var. pilosa, Trelease. — Densely pilose throughout; leaves revolute;. 

 fruit rather shorter and broader. — Mrs. Curran. Ic. (1888). — Mountains 

 of San Diego Co. Cal. {^Palmer, 1875, No. 38; Mrs. Curran). 



R. tfisulus, Kellogg, Proc. Cal. Acad. ii. 20, restored under the name 

 i?. insularis, by Greene, in Bull. Cal. Acad. ii. 392, with its synonym R. 

 ilt'cifolius, Kellogg, I.e. 37, is said by Professor Greene to differ from R. 

 crocea in its arboreous habit, gray bark, and larger leaves and fruit, but I 

 cannot clearly make it out in the herbarium. 



*- "*- Leaves thinner, deciduous, never pungently toothed ; fruit becoming nearly bl.ick. 

 ■*"'• Petals present; flowers mostly 4-merous. 



2. R. cathartica, L. — Tall shrub; branchlets glabrous, opposite or 

 obliquely opposite, the longer ending in short abrupt spines; leaves often 

 fascicled on short spurs, inch or two long, slender petioled, more or less 

 hairy on the veins below, broadly elliptical to subovate, obtuse or blunt- 

 pointed, somewhat acute at base, crenulate or serrulate with glandular 

 denticles, some of the larger veins running to the apex; flowers appearing 

 a little later than the leaves, mostly solitary in the lower axils; pedicels 

 glabrous, 6 to 8 mm. long; carpels 3 or 4; groove of seed deep and nar- 

 row. — Sp. (1753) 193; Watson, Index, 168. — A hedge-plant, escaping 

 somewhat in the East, in dry places. 



3. R. lanceolata, Pursh. — Tall shrub; branchlets puberulent or gla- 

 brate, alternate, not spinose ; leaves i to 3 in. long, short-petioled, golden- 

 pubescent, the upper surface at length glabrate, lanceolate or ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, obtuse when young, but mostly blunt-acuminate when grown, 

 rounded or tapering at base, serrulate with incurved gland-tipped teeth, 

 pinnately veined ; flowers appearing with the leaves, 2 or 3 together in the 



