112 RHAMNACE^. (BUCKTHORN FAMILY.) 



* * Calyx-lobes, petals, and stamens 4. 



R. CATHARTiCA, L. (CoMMOx BUCKTHORV.) Leaves ovate, minutely ser- 

 rate ; fruit 3-4-seeded ; branchlets thornv. — Cultivated for hedges ; sparingly 

 naturalized eastward. May, June. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. R. laneeolata, Pursh. Leaves oblong-lanceolate and acute, or on 

 flowering shoots oblong and obtuse, finely serrulate, smooth or minutely 

 downy beneath ; petals deeply notched ; fruit 2-seeded. — Hills and river-banks, 

 Penn. (Mercersburg, Green) to ID., Tenn., and westward. May. — Shrub 

 tall, not thorny ; the yellowish-green flowers of two forms on distinct plants, 

 both perfect ; one with short pedicels clustered in the axils and with a short 

 included style ; the other with pedicels oftener solitary, the style longer and 

 exserted. 



§ 2. FRANGULA. Flowers perfect; nutlets and seeds not ft rr owed ; cotyle- 

 dons fiat, thick ; rhaphe lateral. 



3- R. Carolini^na, Walt. Thornless shrub or small tree; leaves (3-5' 

 long) oblong, obscurely serrulate, nearly glabrous, deciduous ; flowers .5-merous, 

 in one form umbelled, in another solitary in the axils, short-peduncled ; drupe 

 globose, 3-seeded. (Frangula Caroliniana, Gray.) — Swamps and river-banks, 

 N. J., Va. to Ky., and southward. June. 



3. CE AN 6 THUS, L. New Jersey Tea. Red-root. 



Calyx .'S-lobed, incurved; the lower part cohering with the thick disk to the 

 ovary, the upper separating across in fruit. Petals hooded, spreading, on 

 slender claws longer than the calyx. Filaments elongated. Fruit 3-lobed, dry 

 and splitting into its 3 carpels when ripe. Seed as in § Frangula. — Shrubby 

 plants ; flowers in little umbel-like clusters, forming dense panicles or corymbs 

 at the summit of naked flower-branches ; calyx and pedicels colored like the 

 petals. (An obscure name in Theophrastus, probably misspelled.) 



1. C. Americ^US, L. (New Jersey Tea.) Leaves ovate or oblong- 

 ovate, 3-ribbed, serrate, more or less pubescent, often slightly heart-shaped at 

 base; common peduncles elongated. — Dry woodlands. July. — Stems 1-3° 

 high from a dark red root ; branches downy. Flowers in pretty white clus- 

 ters, on leafy shoots of the same year. The leaves were used for tea during 

 the American Revolution, 



2. C. OVatUS, Desf. Leaves narrowly oval or elliptical-lanceolate, finely 

 glandular-serrate, glabrous or nearly so, as well as the short common pedun- 

 cles. (C. ovalis, Blqel.) — Dry rocks, W. Vt. and Mass. to Minn., 111., and 

 southwestward ; rare eastward. May. 



Order 28. VITACE^E. (Vine Family.) 



Shrubs with watery juice, usually climbing by tendrils, with small regular 

 floicers, a minute or truncated calyx, its limb mostly obsolete, and the stamens 

 as many as the valvate petals and opposite them I Berry 2-celled, usually 

 A-seeded. — Petals 4-5, very deciduous, hypogynous or perigynous. 

 Filaments slender; anthers introrse. Pistil Avith a short style or 

 none, and a slightly 2-lobed stigma ; ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect anatro- 

 pous ovules from the base of each cell. Seeds bony, with a minute 



