N. ORD.-RHAMNACEZ, Ad 
GENUS.—RHAMNUS,* TOURN. 
SEX, SYST.—PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA, 
RHAMNUS CATHARTICUS. 
BUCKTHORN. 
SYN.—RHAMNUS CATHARTICUS, LINN.; R. SOLUTIVUS, GER.; CERVIS- 
PINA CATHARTICA, MGNCH. 
COM. NAMES.—PURGING BUCKTHORN; (FR.) NERPRUN, BOURQUEPINE ; 
(GER.) WEGDORN, KREUZDORN. 
A TINCTURE OF THE RIPE BERRIES OF RHAMNUS CATHARTICUS, LINN, 
Description.—This dense-spreading shrub or small tree attains a growth of 
from 6 to 12 feet. Stem erect; bark grayish; branchlets numerous, tipped with a 
sharp spine. Leaves somewhat opposite or sometimes more or less tufted, oval, 
acuminate, and minutely denticulate-serrate ; vezxs prominent beneath, and arched 
in a direction parallel to the margin. /nflorescence in axillary clusters ; flowers 
minute, greenish-yellow, polygamous or dicecious, the sterile ones with ovate’ 
sepals and petals and an abortive ovary. Ca/yx urceolate, 4 to 5 cleft, persistent; 
lobes lanceolate ; ¢orus thin, lining the tube. Petals 4 to 5 small, linear-oblong ; 
claws short. Stamens short, mostly 4, rudimentary in the fertile flowers ; filaments 
surrounded by the corolla. Ovary free, 2 to 4 celled, not enclosed in the torus; 
styles 2 to 4 distinct or more or less united; stigmas 4, somewhat club-shaped or 
ligulate. /wuz¢ an ovoid, berry-like drupe ; nutlets 3 to 4, seed-like, cartilaginous ; 
seeds grooved on the back and rounded at the sides, a horizontal section resem- 
bling the face of a horse’s hoof; cotyledons leaf-like, the edges revolute. 
Rhamnaces.—A small family of shrubs or small trees, often with thorny 
branchlets, eaves mostly alternate, simple ; stipules small or obsolete. Inflor- 
escence various ; flowers small and regular (sometimes apetalous, or, by abortion, 
dicecious or polygamous) ; in zstivation the sepals are valvate and the petals con- 
volute. Petals clawed, concave, inserted into the edge of a fleshy disk lining the 
short tube of the calyx. Stamens 4 or 5, perigy Pe ae the sepals and 
alternate with them. Ovary 2 to 5 celled; ovades solitary, anatropous ; styles more 
* From the Celtic ram, branching. 
