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Order 43. Dumosje. " Dumus and nemus are syno- 

 nymous, meaning a thicket ; or wood consisting of shrubs, 

 not of large trees. All the plants of this order are shrubby, 

 but none of them, except in the genera of Sideroxylum 

 and Chrysophyllum, grow to large trees." 



" Rhamnus is supposed to be familiar to everybody. 

 Its calyx is tubular, five-cleft at the margin, occasionally 

 coloured, like a corolla, but not perforated at the bottom. 

 A monopetalous corolla falls off, with a perforated tube ; 

 which is not the case here. But betwixt every two seg- 

 ments of the calyx is stationed a delicate little scale, which 

 any person might easily take for so many petals. The 

 stamens however, being placed under each scale, are 

 therefore alternate with the divisions of the calyx; whereas 

 ifthese scales were real petals, the stamens ought, by a 

 general rule, to be alternate with them, and not with the 

 parts into which the calyx is divided. Some species, as 

 the Buckthorn, R. catharticus, have four-cleft flowers, 

 but they are mostly five-cleft. This last-mentioned, like 

 JR. alpimis, is dioecious ; Zizyphus is polygamous. The 

 stigma in some Rhamni is emarginate, in others three- or 

 four-cleft. The fruit of this genus is various ; a berry in 

 some with four seeds, in others, as Paliurus and Alaternus, 

 with three ; in others again it has a single seed with two 

 cells, as in Zizyphus. Paliurus has not, properly, a berry, 

 but a depressed, bordered, shield-like capsule. The stem 

 in some is thorny, in others prickly, in others unarmed." 



" French botanists have recommended the dividing of 

 this genus into several, a measure which appears highly 

 proper to those who have not seen the Indian species. If 

 such genera are to be distinguished by their fruit, species 

 most resembling each other will be put asunder, and widely 

 different ones brought together, as any person making the 

 experiment will find. Besides, the structure of the flower, 

 and the habit of the plants, are respectively so alike in 

 all the species in question, and so different from all the 



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