112 RHAMNACE^E. (BUCKTHORN FAMILY.) 



* * Calyx-lobes, petals, and stamens 4. 



R. CATHARTICA, L. (COMMON BUCKTHORN.) Leaves oi-ate, minutely ser- 

 rate ; fruit 3-4-seeded ; branclilets thorny. Cultivated for hedges ; sparingly 

 naturalized eastward. May, Juue. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. R. lanceolata, Pursh. Leaves oblong-lanceolate aud acute, or on 

 flowering shoots oblong and obtuse, finely serrulate, smooth or minutely 

 downy beneath ; petals deeply notched ; fruit 2-seeded. Hills and river-banks, 

 Penn. (Mercersburg, Green) to 111., Teuu., and westward. May. Shrub 

 tall, not thorny ; the yellowish-green flowers of two forms on distinct plants, 

 both perfect ; one with short pedicels clustered in the axils and with a short 

 included style ; the other with pedicels oftener solitary, the style longer and 

 exserted. 



2. FRANGULA. Flowers perfect ; nutlets and seeds not furrowed ; cotyle- 

 dons flat, thick ; rhaphe lateral. 



3. R. Caroliniana, Walt. Thornless shrub or small tree ; leaves (3 - 5' 

 long) oblong, obscurely serrulate, nearly glabrous, deciduous ; flowers 5-merous, 

 in one form umbelled, in another solitary in the axils, short-peduncled ; drupe 

 globose, 3-seeded. (Fraugula Caroliniaua, Gray.) Swamps and river-banks, 

 N. J., Va. to Ky., and southward. June. 



3. C BAN 6 THUS, L. NEW JERSEY TEA. RED-ROOT. 



Calyx 5-lobed, incurved ; the lower part cohering with the thick disk to the 

 ovary, the upper separating across in fruit. Petals hooded, spreading, on 

 slender claws longer than the calyx. Filaments elongated. Fruit 3-lobed, dry 

 and splitting into its 3 carpels when ripe. Seed as in Frangula. Shrubby 

 plants ; flowers in little umbel-like clusters, forming dense panicles or corymbs 

 at the summit of naked flower-branches ; calyx and pedicels colored like the 

 petals. (An obscure name in Theophrastus, probably misspelled.) 



1. C. Americanus, L. (NEW JERSEY TEA.) Leaves ovate or oblong- 

 ovate, 3-ribbed, serrate, more or less pubescent, often slightly heart-shaped at 

 base ; common peduncles elongated. Dry woodlands. July. Stems 1-3 

 high from a dark red root branches downy. Flowers in pretty white clus- 

 ters, on leafy shoots of the same year. The leaves were used for tea during 

 the American Revolution. 



2. C. ovatus, Desf. Leaves narrowly oval or elliptical-lanceolate, finely 

 glandular-serrate, glabrous or nearly so, as well as the short common pedun- 

 cles. (C. ovalis, Blyel.) Dry rocks, W. Vt. and Mass, to Minn., 111., and 

 southwest ward ; rare eastward. May. 



ORDER 28. VITACE^E. (VINE FAMILY.) 



Shrubs ivith watery juice, usually climbing by tendrils, with small regular 

 flowers, a minute or truncated calyx, its limb mostly obsolete, and the stamens 

 as many as the valvate petals and opposite them ! Berry ^-celled, usually 

 ^-seeded. Petals 4-5, very deciduous, hypogynous or perigynous. 

 Filaments slender ; anthers introrse. Pistil with a short style or 

 none, and a slightly 2-lobed stigma ; ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect anatro- 

 pous ovules from the base of each cell. Seeds bony, with a minute 



