528 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. _ PART III 
the hedges are formed of this plant, as they are of the hawthorn in Britain ; 
it is also the common hedge plant in Asia. Du Hamel recommends it for 
being employed for hedges in the south of France, where it abounds in a 
wild state. Medicinally, the entire plant is considered diuretic ; and it is 
said to have been given with success in dropsical cases. Virgil, when 
describing, in figurative language, Nature as mourning for the death of 
Julius Cesar, says the earth was no longer covered with flowers or corn, 
but with thistles, and the sharp spines of the paliurus. Columella recom- 
mends excluding the plant entirely from gardens, and planting it with 
brambles for the purpose of forming live hedges. In the south of France, 
where it has been tried in this way, the same objection is made to it as to 
hedges of the common sloe (Priinus spindsa) in this country; viz. that it 
throws up such numerous suckers as in a short time to extend the width of 
the hedge considerably on both sides. As this species abounds in Judza, 
and as the spines are very sharp, and the branches very pliable, and easily 
twisted into any figure, Belon supposed the crown of thorns, which was 
put upon the head of Christ before his crucifixion, to be composed of them. 
Josephus says “ that this thorn, having sharper prickles than any other, in 
order that Christ might be the more tormented, they made choice of it for 
a crown for him.” (Ant. of the Jews, book i. chap. ii., as quoted by Gerard.) 
Hasselquist, however, thinks that the crown of thorns was formed of another 
prickly plant, the Zizyphus spina-Christi W., Rhamnus spina-Christi Lin. ; 
but, according to Warburton, it was the Acanthus mollis, which can hardly 
be considered prickly at all. 
Statistics. The largest plant of this species in the neighbourhood of London is at Syon, where 
it is 33 ft. high, the trunk 1 ft., and the diameter of the head 30ft. (See our engraving of 
this tree in Vol. II.) There is a fine old specimen in the Botanic Garden at Oxford about 20 ft. 
high, and one in the Chelsea Botanic Garden of considerable age, but not remarkable for its 
height. Plants, in the London nurseries, are 1s. 6d. each; at Bollwyller, 1 franc 20 cents each ; 
and at New York, 50 cents each. 
Genus III. 
BERCHE'M/4 Neck. Tue Bercnemra. Lin. Syst. Pentandria 
Monogfnia. 
Identification. Neck. Elem., 2. p. 122. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 22.3; Brongn. Mém. Rham., 49.; Don’s 
Miall., :2. sp; 27. 
Synonymes. Ginéplia Hedw. F. Gen., 1. p.151., and Schult. Syst., 5. p. 962. 
Derivation. rom Berchem, probably the name of some botanist. 
Description, §c. Twining deciduous shrubs, of which there is only one 
species considered hardy. 
2 1. B. votu‘pitis Dec. The twining Berchemia. 
Identification. Dec. Prod., 2. p. 22.; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 27. 
Synonymes. Fhamnus volubilis Lin. Fil. Suppl., 132., Jacg. Icon. Rar., t. 336. ; Zizyphus volubilis 
Willd. Spec., 1. p. 1102.; CEnéplia volibilis Schult. Syst., 5. p. 332. ; Supple Jack, Virginian. 
Engravings. Jacq. Icon. Rar., t. 336.; E. of Pl., No. 2895.; and our jig. 196. 
Spec. Char., §c. Branches glabrous, rather twining.’ 
Leaves oval, mucronate, somewhat waved. Flowers 
diecious. Drupes oblong. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 22.) 
A deciduous twining shrup, a native of Carolina and 
Virginia, in deep swamps near the sea coast. Intro- ff 
duced in 1714. According to Pursh, it ascends the ” 
highest trees of Taxddium distichum, in the dismal 
swamp near Suffolk in Virginia; and it is known 
there by the name of Supple Jack. The stems 
twine round one another, or any object which they 
may be near; but, in British gardens, they are sel- 
dom seen above 8 ft. or 10ft. high, probably from 
little attention being paid to place the plant in a 

