SAPINDACE.E. 229 



rise; but generally these branches remain as short spui's terminated 

 by spines, while those that produce elongated leafy shoots rarely 

 bear any flowers. 



Berry-bearing Alder, or Breaking BucMliorn. 



French, Nerprun Bourdaine. German, Faulbaum, Pvlverholz. 



Tliis species of the genus possesses the same qualities as the last one described. 

 The bark and berries are occasionally used in veterinary practice. The bark and leaves 

 yield a yellow dye much used in Russia ; when mixed wth salts of iron it turns black. 

 The berries when unripe afford a good green colour, readily taken by woollen stuffs ; 

 when ripe they give various shades of blue and grey. The colouring matter in this, 

 as in the Buckthorn, is principally a substance called " rhamnin." The wood of the 

 Alder Buckthorn is too small to be of much value excepting for charcoal, for which 

 purpose it is preferred by tlie gunpowder makers to almost any other tree, as it yields a 

 very light and inflammable kind. 



OEDEE XXIV.— S APINDACE^. 



Trees (more rarely shrubs or undershrubs), sometimes climbing 

 or twining, with watery sap whicli is very rarely bitter. Leaves 

 frequently evergreen, alternate, often compound. Inflorescence 

 various. Elowers generally small, greenish or white, regular or 

 irregular, most commonly polygamo-dioBcious. Sepals 4 or 5 

 (rarely more or none), free or more or less united, often unequal, 

 imbricated or rarely valvate. Petals 3 to 5 or none, equal or 

 unequal, the posterior one frequently absent, often with a scale or 

 tuft of hairs within, imbricated. Disk more or less conspicuous, 

 more or less one-sided. Stamens 8 (rarely 5 or 10, very rarely 

 fewer or more), commonly hypogynous and inserted within the 

 disk. Filaments generally elongated. Ovary entire, lobed or partite, 

 generally 3- (more rarely 1- to 4-) celled. Style simple or divided. 

 Ovules usually 1 or 2 in each cell, ascending from an axial placenta. 

 Funiculus often swollen. Fruit and seed various. Albumen gene- 

 rally none. Hadicle short, inferior. 



Stjb-Orpeu I.— ACEEINEiE. 



Elowers regular. Sepals and petals equal in number, or the 

 latter absent. Stamens usually 8, inserted above the disk when it 

 is present. Fruit with 2 (or accidentally 3 or 4) indehiscent 

 samaroid lobes. Seeds without an arillus and without albumen. 



