RHAMNACE. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
dl 
RHAMNUS. 
FLowers perfect or polygamo-diccious; calyx 4 or 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in 
estivation; petals 4 or 5 or 0, inserted on the margin of the disk; ovary free, 2 to 
4-celled. Fruit drupaceous, 2 to 4-coccous. 
Rhamnus, Linneus, Gen. 58. — Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 
305.— A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 380. — Brongniart, A/ém. 
hamnées, 53. — Endlicher, Gen. 1097. — Meisner, Gen. 
71.— Gray, Gen. I7l. ii. 179. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. 
i. 377. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. vi. 74. 
Frangula, Adanson, Fam. Pi. ii. 305.— Gray, Gen. Ill. i. 
177. 
Cardiolepis, Rafinesque, Neogen. 1; Sylva Tellur. 28. 
Sarcomphalus, Rafinesque, Sylva Tellur. 29. 
Sciadophila, Philippi, Linnea, xxviii. 618. 
Small trees or shrubs, with terete, often spinescent branches and acrid bitter bark. Leaves alter- 
nate or rarely obliquely opposite, conduplicate in vernation, petiolate, feather-veined, entire or dentate ; 
stipules small, deciduous. Flowers in axillary simple or compound racemes or fascicled cymes, small, 
Calyx campanulate, the lobes triangular-ovate, erect or spreading, keeled on the 
Disk lining the tube of the calyx, thin below, more or less thickened above. 
green, or yellow-green. 
inner surface, deciduous. 
Petals inserted in its margin, alternate with the lobes of the calyx, unguiculate, entire, emarginate, or 
two-lobed, concave or cucullate, involute around the stamens in estivation, deciduous. Stamens as 
many as and opposite the petals; filaments very short, subulate ; anthers didymous, introrse, two-celled, 
the cells opening longitudinally ; rudimentary and sterile in the pistillate flower. Ovary free, ovoid, 
included in the tube of the calyx, two to four-celled ; rudimentary in the sterile flower; styles united 
below, with spreading stigmatic lobes, or terminating in a two to four-lobed obtuse stigma; ovules 
solitary, erect from the base of the cells, anatropous; raphe ventral, becoming in one section lateral 
and in the other dorsal by the torsion of the short funiculus. Fruit oblong or spherical, supported on 
the circular base of the calyx; sarcocarp thick and fleshy, inclosing two to four separable cartilaginous 
one-seeded indehiscent or more or less dehiscent nutlets. Seed erect, obovate, grooved longitudinally 
on the back, with a cartilaginous testa, the raphe in the groove; or convex on the back with a mem- 
branaceous testa, the raphe lateral next to one margin of the cotyledons. Embryo large, surrounded 
with thin fleshy albumen ; cotyledons oval, foliaceous with revolute margins, or flat and fleshy ; radicle 
very short, turned a little from the hilum.’ 
The genus Rhamnus is widely distributed in nearly all the temperate and in many tropical parts 
of the world, with the exception of Australia and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. About sixty 
species are distinguished. They occur principally in Europe* and in the Orient,* in southern and east- 
ern Asia,‘ and in North America. The genus is represented in the West Indies,’ Central America,’ 
2 Nyman, Conspect. Fl. Europ. 145. 
8 Boissier, Fl. Orient. ii. 14. 
* Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 638.— 'Thwaites, Enum. Pl. Zey- 
lan. 74.— Maximowiez, Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Pctersbourg, ser. 7, x. 
No. 11, 6.— Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 82. — Franchet, 
Pl. David. i. 72. — Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 128. 
5 Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. vii. 50, t. 
616-619. — Bentham, Pl. Hartweg. 9, 302.— Torrey & Gray, Fl. 
N. Am. i. 260.— Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 197. — Trelease, 
Trans. St. Louis Acad. v. 365. 
6 Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 99. 
* Hemsley, /. c. 
1 The genus Rhamnus is separated into the following sections 
which are considered genera by many authors : — 
1. Evramnus. Flowers usually polygamo-diccious, lobes of 
the stigma spreading. Seed grooved on the back ; testa cartilagi- 
nous ; raphe dorsal ; cotyledons foliaceous, with revolute margins. 
Inflorescence mostly sessile. Branches often furnished with blunt 
spines ; winter-buds scaly. 
2. FRANGULA. Flowers perfect ; lobes of the stigma short and 
obtuse, more or less united. Seed rounded on the back ; testa 
membranaceous ; raphe lateral ; cotyledons thick and fleshy. In- 
flurescence pedunculate. Branches unarmed ; winter-buds naked. 
(Tournefort, Inst. 612, t. 383.) 
