RHAMNACEJE. 



A tree about the size of an apple tree. Prickles absent, or in pairs, 

 one of them being recurved. Leaves ovate, retuse, toothletted, quite 

 smooth as well as the branches. Flowers green, axillary, 3-5 together, 

 on short stalks. Drupe oblong, the size of an olive, dull red, with a 

 soft mealy pulp. 



BERCHEMIA. 



Calyx 5-cleft, with a hemispherical tube; segments erect. 

 Petals 5, convolute. Stamens inclosed within the petals; an- 

 thers ovate, 2-celled. Disk fleshy, annular, flattish. Ovary half 

 immersed in the disk but free from it, 2-celled ; style short, 

 bifid at the apex ; stigmas convex. Fruit drupaceous, with a 

 bony 2-celled nut. Seed-coat fibrous, closely adhering above 

 and on the side next the axis to the putamen, free below and 

 on the outer side. Erect or climbing shrubs. Leaves alter- 

 nate, many-nerved : nerves oblique, almost simple, pretty close 

 to each other. Flowers in short corymbs or umbels from the 

 axils of the upper leaves, or nearly sessile and fascicled along 

 slender leafless branches, which form a terminal panicle. 

 W. and A. 



324-. B. volubilis DC.prodr. ii. 22. (Enoplia volubilis/?. a 

 v. 332. Rhamnus volubilis Linn, suppl. 152. Jacq. ic. t. 336. 

 In Carolina and Virginia. 



A twining shrub, with a stem not thicker than a quill. Leaves 

 elliptical, stalked, rounded at the base, rounded and acuminate at the 

 point, smooth on each side, shining on the upper side, with strong 

 parallel pinnated veins. Flowers small, in short terminal racemes. 

 Calyx greenish ; petals white. Drupe oblong, black, 1-celled. Roots 

 prescribed in cachectic disorders ; said to be"antisiphilitic. 



CEANOTHUS. 



Calyx 5-cleft, campanulate, cut round after flowering, with the 

 base permanent and adhering to the fruit. Petals hooded, 

 with long spreading claws. Fruit dry, 3-celled, loculicidal, with 

 papery valves; cells 1 -seeded. Spineless shrubs. 



325. C. americanus Linn.sp.pl. 284. Bot. Mag. t. 1479. 

 Millie. I. 57. DC.prodr. ii. 31. United States of Ame- 

 rica. 



A small bush. Leaves ovate, acuminate, serrated, 3-nerved, downy 

 on the under side. Flowers white in long thyrses ; with a downy axis. 

 Fruit bluntly 3-cornered. An infusion of the twigs has been named as 

 useful, on account of its astringency, to stop gonorrhoeal discharges ; 

 its root is said to be antisiphilitic. 



RHAMNUS. 



Calyx urceolate, 4-cleft. Petals either wanting or 5 ; either 

 nearly flat, or slightly convolute and emarginate at the apex. 



166 



