22G ENGLISH BOTANY. 



perfect, small, green or yellowish, usually arranged in axillary 

 cymes. Calyx often leathery, with an obconical turhinate urceo- 

 late or cylindrical tube, and a 4- or 5-lobed limb with the lobes 

 triangular, erect or recurved, valvate. Petals very small, 4, 5, 

 or none, inserted in the throat of the calyx, frequently hooded 

 and emarginate. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted with the petals 

 and opposite to them. Disk perigynous (rarely none), simple or 

 lobed, smooth or tomentose. Ovary sessile, free or immersed in 

 tlie disk, wholly superior or more or less adhering to the tvibe 

 of the calyx, 3- (rarely 2- or 4-) celled. Style erect, generally 

 short and thick. PlacentjE near the base of the cells. Ovules 1 (or 

 very rarely 2) in each cell, anatropous. Fruit free or more 

 or less adhering to the tube of the calyx, generally 3-celled, 

 various, often drupaceous. Seeds solitary, ovoid-compressed, often 

 ai'illate at the base; seed-coat hard, leathery or membranaceous. 

 Albumen fleshy, often scanty, but rarely absent. Embryo large, 

 often greenish, with the radicle straight, inferior. 



GENUS I.—'R H A M N U S. Linn. 



Plowers perfect or polygamo-dioecious. Calyx urceolate or 

 bell-shaped, persistent, with 4 or 5 ovate-triangular erect or 

 spreading lobes keeled within. Petals 4 or 5, very small, hooded 

 or flat, inserted on the upper margin of the disk, sometimes absent. 

 Disk clothing the tube of the calyx within. Pruit fleshy, round 

 or oblong, containing 2 to 4 bony or cartilaginous pyrenes or stones 

 which are nearly or quite indehiscent, and each of which contains 

 a single seed. 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate or sub-opposite leaves with small 

 deciduous stipules. Plowers small, greenish, axillary, in fasciculate 

 cymes or racemes. 



According to tlie best authorities the name of this genus comes from pala^voc, a 

 young branch or sprout, because divided into many branches ; or we may further trace 

 the derivation to the Celtic word ram, signifying a tuft of branches, which tlie Greeks 

 have changed to pafiuot; and the Latins to ramies. 



SPECIES I.-RH A MN US C ATH ARTICUS. Linn. 

 Plate CCCXVIII. 



Stem erect. Old branches generally terminating in a spine. 

 Leaves mostly opposite towards the base of the young shoots, 

 elliptical or oval-elliptical, usually slightly acuminated towards the 



