CALYCIFLOR.E i8g 



Alder Buckthorn, and visited by many insects for 

 their honey. The fruits are dispersed by birds. 



The group is of some little importance, including 

 small trees. The berries are cathartic. A green dye 

 is also produced from the native species. 



Buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus). 



Buckthorn is a well-known plant distinguished by 

 its branched habit (hence Rhamnus) , blackish stems 

 and twigs, and berries, and the finely cut leaf-margin 

 and straight thorns. 



It is generally distributed throughout the British 

 Isles, being common in England, rare in Scotland, 

 and very rare in Ireland. 



Hedges, woods and thickets, bushy places, are the 

 chief habitats of the Buckthorn, which, however, is 

 much planted. It is especially common on chalk or 

 limestone, but occurs in woods with the Sessile Oak 

 on siliceous soils. It occurs in the Ashwood asso- 

 ciation on limestone, on limestone scrub, on the 

 chalk, on chalk scrub, and in the chalk grassland 

 association, as well as in the fen formation in ulti- 

 mate carr. 



A shrub in habit. Buckthorn is rigid, hairless, or 

 hairy, much branched, the branches opposite, 

 spreading, the smaller ones ending in a thorn, with 

 black bark. 



The leaves are roundish to oval, coarsely or finely 

 and regularly toothed, the teeth incurved, stalked, 



