84 RHAMNACEiE. 



Species about 70, in temperate climates of the northern 

 hemisphere. 



Branches ending in spines : leaves tufted on short spurs ; floral 

 parts in fours. Shrubs or trees usually in the open. 



R. virgatus. 

 No spines : leaves all scattered, dark dull green : parts of the 

 flower in fives. Shrubs or trees very common in woods. 



R. wightii. 



Rhamnus virgatus Roxburgh ; F.B.L as R. dahuricus 

 Pall, i 639, V 3 ; the Indian Buckthorn. In dry places a 

 very spiny, stunted shrub, with tufts of small, finely 

 toothed, leaves, and white, thin, smooth bark. Shoots of 

 two kinds (i) ordinary branches i^ to 6 inches long, with 

 leaves, or more usually leaf-scars, at intervals of ^ to J^ 

 inch ; and (ii) very short shoots (spurs) from the axils 

 of the leaf-scars on (i) barely % inch long, crowded with 

 bud-scars and ending in a tuft of leaves. Leaves J^ to 

 I J^ inches or up to 3 inches in moist places ovate acute, a 

 little oblique, finely serrate from near the base to the tip, 

 with usually two veins on either side of the midrib, 

 starting from below the middle. Flowers numerous, on 

 slender pedicels of H inch, fascicled in the leaf-axils. 

 Sepals four, narrow acute. Ovary two-celled with two 

 styles. Fruit 1/5 inch. Seeds plano-convex with a deep 

 furrow on the outer side (Bedd.). A spur (ii) may con- 

 tinue as such for several seasons, or in another year 

 lengthen into a branch of the first kind, and perhaps 

 all the latter start as spurs, for they have usually crowded 

 leaf-scars at the base. The combination of leafless 

 spine-tipped branches and leafy spurs is very charac- 

 teristic. Since the formation of a spine of necessity 

 terminates the growth of a branch and further extension 

 can be only by a lateral shoot, the spines frequently 

 appear in the forks of the branch system, t. 64. 



At high elevations on both Nilgiris and Pulneys : not very 

 common. Fyson 3009, Bourne 105 1, looi. 



