406 RHAMNACE^. Sageretia. 



S. Michauxii, Brongn. Trailing or scrambling : twigs somewhat angled, becoming te- 

 rete, at first tomentose : leaves ovate, mostly cordate, acute. or acuminate, somewhat mucro- 

 nate, incurved-serrulate or on lax shoots sharply serrate; the larger about 1^ inches long, 

 their tomentose petioles 1 or 2 lines long; veins beneath and occasionally the surface some- 

 what tomentose : inflorescence at length ample, loose, leafless above, terminating the upper 

 branches, the lower spikes spreading from the axils of the uppermost foliar leaves : flowers 

 very fragrant : fruit 4 lines long, sessile. — Mem. Rhamn. 53, & Ann. Sci. Nat. x. 360 ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 263 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 176, t. 166 ; Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 358; 

 Trelease, 1. c. 367. Rhamnus viinutiflorus, Michx. Fl. i. 154 ; Nutt. Gen. i. 152 ; Pursh, Fl. 

 i. 166; Ell. Sk. i. 289; DC. Prodr. ii. 27. Afarca parviflora, Raf. Silv. Tellur. 30. 

 Segrer/atia Michauxii, Wood, Class-Book, ed. of 1861, 292. — South Carolina to Alabama, 

 around the coast. 



S. "Wrightii, Watson. Shrubby, as much as ten feet high : leaves elliptical or obovate, 

 not cordate, glabrescent, half inch to nearly an inch long : inflorescence often simpler, 

 with mostly short lateral branches. — Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 358; Trelease, 1. c. 367. — 

 W. Texas to the Sta. Rita Mountains of Arizona. (Northern Mex., Lower Calif.) 



8. RHAMNUS, Tourn. Buckthorn. ('Pa/aj/os, the ancient Greek name 



of the Buckthorn.) — Shrubs or small trees, mostly spineless, with alternate, 



obliquely opposite or opposite, entire to serrulate or pungently toothed pinnately 



veined mostly thin and ample leaves with often lanceolate but caducous stipules, 



and small sometimes dioecious flowers solitary in the lower axils or in sessile or 



peduncled axillary umbels. — Inst. 593, t. 366 ; L. Gen. no. 165 ; Brongn. Mem. 



Rhamn. 53, & Ann. Sc. Nat. x. 362 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 179 ; Benth. & Hook. 



Gen. i. 377 ; Baill. Hist. PI. vi. 74 ; Trelease, Trans. St. Louis Acad. v. 361, 365 ; 



Sargent, Silv. ii. 31 ; Weberbauer in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 



5, 409. — Includes Frangula, sometimes kept apart. Cosmopolitan but chiefly of 



the north- temperate zone. 



* Flowers mostly polygamo-dioecious, appearing nearly with the leaves, without a common 

 peduncle: seeds grooved down the back (except in R. alnifolia), the rhaphe lying in the 

 groove ; cotyledons relatively thin, curved with the seed : winter buds scaly. 



-1— Leaves firm though rather thin, evergreen, often pungently toothed : flowers 4-merous : 

 fruit red, the mostly 2 cocci widely dehiscent on the inner angle. 



R. crocea, Nutt. Spreading shrub or rarely arborescent, with rather red bark : twigs di- 

 varicate, puberuleut or glabrescent, often ending in blunt spines : leaves alternate or fas- 

 cicled, glossy, mostly bronzed beneath, glabrous or somewhat puberulent on the petiole and 

 midrib beneath, nearly round to broadly ovate or elliptical, emarginate tomucronate-acumi- 

 nate, glandular-dentate or bideuticulate, 3 to 12 lines, their petioles 1 or 2 lines long: 

 flowers mostly apetalous : fruit 2 or 3 lines long : pedicels at length 1 to 2 or exceptionally 

 3 lines long. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 261 ; Jour. Hort. Soc. London, vi. 217, with fig. ; 

 Wats. Cat. PI. Wheeler, 7, & Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 114; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 100; 

 M. K. Currau, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 251 ; Trelease, 1. c. 365 ; Sargent, Gard. & For. 

 ii. 364, & Silv. ii. 33, t. 59. R. ilicifolia, Kell. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ii. 37. — California, from 

 Mariposa County southward, chiefly in the Coast Range. (Lower Calif.) 



Var. insularis, Sargent, is an arborescent form differing in its grayer bark, larger 

 less toothed leaves, longer flowers and fruit (commonly 3 lines long), and said to flower six 

 weeks later than the ordinary form. — Gard. & For. ii. 364, & Silv. ii. 34, t. 60. R. insularis, 

 Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. ii. 392, & Pittonia, i. 201. R. pirifolia, Greene, Pittonia, iii. 

 15. — Islands of California and Lower California from Sta. Barbara southward, also about 

 San Diego. 



Var. pilosa, Trelease, is a form with the mostly larger, toothed leaves, and the 

 inflorescence, strikingly gray -velvety. — Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 251, & Trans. St. 

 Louis Acad. v. 365; Sargent, Silv. ii. .33. — San Diego County, California, passing into the 

 ty]io through Arizona specimens, Palmer, Jones. 



