* 404 BALSAMINACEAE. (Vou. II. 
2. Impatiens aurea Muhl. Pale 
Touch-me-not. (Fig. 2389.) 
Impatiens aurea Muhl, Cat. 26. 1813. 
Impatiens pallida Nutt. Gen, 1: 146. 1818. 
Similar to the preceding species, but larger 
and stouter. Flowers pale yellow, sparingly 
dotted with reddish-brown, or sometimes dot- 
less, 12//-15/’ long; saccate sepal dilated- 
conic, about as broad as long, abruptly con- 
tracted into a short scarcely incurved notched 
spur, less than one-third its length; bracts of 
the pedicels lanceolate to ovate, acute. 
In similar situations, most abundant north- 
ward. Quebec to Oregon, south to Georgia and 
Kansas, July-Sept. This and the preceding 
also called Snapweed. 
WS 
Family 71. RHAMNACEAE Dumort. Fl. Belg. 102. 1827. 
BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 
Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny. Leaves simple, stip- 
ulate, mainly alternate, often 3-5-nerved. Stipules small, deciduous. Inflor- 
escence commonly of axillary or terminal cymes or panicles. Flowers small, 
regular, perfect or polygamous. Calyx-tube obconic or cylindric, the limb 4-5- 
toothed. 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 
in each cavity, anatropous. Fruit a drupe or capsule, often 3-celled. Seeds 
solitary in the cavities, erect; endosperm fleshy, rarely none; embryo large; 
cotyledons flat. 
About 45 genera and 575 species, natives of temperate and warm regions. 
Ovary free from the disk; fruit a drupe. 
Petals sessile, entire; stone of the drupe 2-celled. 1. Berchemia, 
Petals short-clawed or none; stones of the drupe 2-4. 2. Rhamnus. 
Ovary adnate to the disk at its base; fruit dry. 3. Ceanothus. 
= 
1. BERCHEMIA Neck. Elem. 2: 122. 1790. 
Climbing or erect shrubs, with alternate petioled ovate or oblong coriaceous pinnately- 
veined leaves, and small greenish-white flowers in axillary or terminal clusters, or rarely 
solitary. Calyx-tube hemispheric, the limb 5-toothed. Petals 5, sessile, concave or cucul- 
late. Stamens 5; filaments filiform. Disk filling the calyx-tube, covering but not united 
with the ovary. Drupe oval, obtuse, compressed, its flesh thin and coriaceous, its stone 
2 celled. Seeds linear-oblong; cotyledons thin. [Name unexplained. | 
: About to species, the following in southeastern North America, the others in Asia and tropical 
Africa, 
1. Berchemia scandens (Hill. ) Trel. 
Supple-Jack. (Fig. 2390.) 
R. scandens Hill, Hort. Kew. 453. p/. 20. 1768. 
Berchemia volubilis DC. Prodr. 2: 22. 1825. 
Berchemia scandens Trel. Trans. St. Louis Acad. 
5: 364. 1889. 
A glabrous high-climbing shrub, with slen- 
der tough terete branches. Leaves ovate or 
ovate-oblong, 1/-2’ long, %/-1’ wide, acute, 
acuminate, or obtuse and cuspidate at the apex, 
obtuse or somewhat truncate at the base, dark 
green above, paler beneath, their margins un- 
dulate and sometimes slightly revolute; veins 
8-12 pairs; petioles slender, 2’’-5’’ long; flow- 
ers about 14’ broad, mainly in small terminal 
panicles; petals acute; style short; drupe 3//— 
4’’ long, equalling or shorter than its slender 
pedicel, its stone crustaceous. 
In low woods, Virginia to Florida, Kentucky, 
Missouri and Texas. March-June. 
