208 THE SPINDLE-TKEE FAMILY. 



ovate, obtuse, entire or slightly-waved, feather-veined, and petiolate 

 leaves ; minute, pentamerous, and bisexual flowers, growing two or 

 three together in the axils of the leaves, and followed by pea-like 

 berries, pinkish-green while immature, and when ripe, of a dark- 

 purple colour. Fruit and tardy blossoms may often be found in com- 

 pany on the same branch. Like the berries of many other species of 

 this genus, those of the Frangula are violently purgative, and though 

 exceedingly inviting to the eye, should therefore be left untasted. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 AiiDEB Buckthorn — [Rhdmnus Frangula.) 

 Moist woods and in low wet ground, as by pondsides and on the 

 borders of marshes, frequent. Plentiful in and about Mere Clough 

 and Prestwich Dells ; by the sides of ponds below Bowdon old Church, 

 and about Mobberley ; near Rostherne Mere, and on the drained edges 

 of many of the mosses. Fl. May — July. 



E. B. iv. 250 ; Baxter, iii. 219. 

 Several Khamnacese occur in green-houses aud slirubberies, but the only com- 

 mon one is the Alaternus, an ornamental evergreen, with serrated leaves, and 

 small, pale, honey-scented flowers, produced abundantly in March and April. 



LVII.— THE SPINDLE-TREE FAMILY. CelastrdcecB. 



Small trees or shrubs, with simple, undi^'ided, alternate, or some- 

 times opposite leaves ; the flowers in loose axillary cymes, small, and 

 usually purplish-green. Sepals four or five, inserted into the margin 

 of an expanded disk ; petals four or five, inserted by a broad base, 

 under the margin of the disk, but sometimes absent. Stamens the 

 same number, and alternate with the petals. Ovary immersed in the 

 disk, with a very short style. 



A family with numerous representatives in the warmer parts of the 

 world, a great number inhabiting the Cape of Good Hope, but in 

 England known only in the Celastrus and the spindle-trees, the latter 

 of which alone are objects of Manchester botany. The common 

 spindle-tree is a glabrous, green-barked shrub, three to eight feet 

 high, with ovate-lanceolate, pointed, and minutely serrated leaves ; 

 and cymes of three to five yellowish-green and tetramcrous flowers, 

 borne on peduncles shorter than the leaves. The capsule is strikingly 



