228 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



sidered a dose, and a decoction of forty was sometimes given. The only form in -wliicli 

 they are now administered by regular practitioners is as a syrup ; but it is pleasant to 

 be reminded by the very rare use of this active medicine that the days of violent 

 remedies are gone, we hope, for ever, and that the intelligent practice of physic leans 

 rather to the gentle assistance of Nature's own efforts than to the violent interference 

 with her operations to which our forefathers were subject. The juice of the ripe 

 berries of the Buckthorn mixed with alum or lime furnishes the sap-green so well 

 known to water-colour painters. From the dried berries a series of rich but fugitive 

 colours is obtained ; they are sold under the name of " French berries," and are imported 

 with those of E. iufectorius from the Levant. Goats, sheep, and horses browse on this 

 shrub ; cows refuse it. The blossoms are very grateful to bees, and the leaves are 

 eaten voraciously by goats. 



SPECIES II.— RHAMNUS FRANGULA. Linn. 

 Plate CCCXIX. 

 Frangula Alnus, Mill. Garcke, Fl. von Nord- und Mit.-Deutsch. ed. vi. p. 90. 



Stem erect ; branches without spines. Leaves all alternate, 

 obovate-oval, usually slightly acuminate at the apex, entire ; lateral 

 veins 7 to 12 on each side of the midrib, from which they spring 

 at an angle of about 45 degrees, running nearly straight to the 

 margin, where they curve round and anastomose with the adjacent 

 one on the apical side. Stijiules subulate, much shorter than the 

 petiole. Plowei'S perfect, pentamerous. Style undivided. Berry 

 usually 2-seeded. 



In woods, copses, and hedgerows. Not uncommon, and gene- 

 rally distributed in England. In Scotland it is only known in 

 Ayrshire and Moray. 



rtd'i England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub. Spi'iDg and Summer. 



A shrub of about the same size as the last, but more slender and 

 less rigid, with the leaves much more flaccid, 1^ to 3 inches long ; 

 the veins much more numerous and not describing a flat cvtrve, 

 nearly parallel to the midrib. Elowers about the same size as those 

 of H. catharticus but with the calyx segments broader and shorter, 

 the style undivided, and all perfect. Berry about the same size 

 as the last-named species, reddish until it is quite ripe, when it 

 turns black. Seeds much broader and flatter. Leaves yellowish 

 green, glabrous except the petioles, which as well as the shoots of 

 the year are covered with very short down. 



The flowers in this species are produced not only from the wood 

 of the preceding year but also on the shoots of the current yeai', 

 which is very seldom the case with II. catharticus, though it some- 

 times takes place by the lengthening out of the branches on which 

 the fascicles of leaves from the axils of which the flowers take their 



