378 XLII. RHAMNE^ (hEMSLEY). 



capitate or club-shaped. Ovules solitary, erect, anatropous ; raphe dorsal or 

 rarely lateral. Fruit a drupe or capsule, 1-4-celled, with the persistent 

 calyx-tub'e forming a ring at the base or more or less covering it, separating 

 from the axis into as many cocci as cells or inseparable. Seeds solitary, 

 erect, ovoid, angular or compressed, often arillate ; testa coriaceous, crusta- 

 ceous or membranous, often shining ; albumen fleshy or horny, often thin, 

 very rarely none. Embryo orthotropous, with thick, flat or plano-convex coty- 

 ledons, and a short inferior radicle. — Shrubs or trees, erect or climbipg, often 

 spiny, rarely cirrhose. Leaves simple, alternate or opposite, entire or toothed ; 

 stipules small and deciduous or spinose and persistent. Mowers small, green 

 or yellow, generally arranged in axillary cymes, seldom terminal and race- 

 mose or paniculate. 



A rather extensive family, represented throughout the temperate and tropical regions of 

 the whole world. Of the eight tropical African genera, six have a wide range both in the 

 Old and New World ; one, Helinus, is confined to Africa and India, and the anomalous 

 genus Lasiodiscus is endemic. The Order is geuerally readily distinguished from its allies 

 by the valvate sepals, stamens opposite the petals, and drupaceous or capsular, not baccate 

 fruit. 



Leaves alternate. 



Ovary superior or half- inferior. 

 Leaves 3-5-nerved from the base. 



Drupe 1-3-celled, fleshy. Stipules usually spinescent ... 2. Zizyphus. 

 Drupe dry, separating into 3-cocci. Stipules deciduous ... 5. Colubrina. 

 Leaves penninerved. 



Drupe oblong, 2-celled. Ovary immersed in the disk ... 3. Beuchemia. 

 Drupe spherical, with 2-4 pyrenes, 2-4-celled ovary seated on 



the disk. Disk thin 4. Rhamnus. 



Nut 1-celled, produced upwards into an oblong wing. Ovary 



immersed in the disk • 1. Vkntilago. 



Ovary inferior. 



Fruit 3-winged. Flowers racemose . . " 6, Gouania. 



Fruit globular. Flowers umbellate 7. Helinus. 



Leaves opposite, with interpetiolar stipules. Ovary half-inferior . . 8. Lasiodiscus. 



1. VENTILAGO, Giertn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 375. 



Calyx 5-lobed ; lobes spreading. Petals 5 or 0, obcordate or 2-lobed, 

 hood-shaped. Stamens 5, adnate to the base of the petals and scarcely ex- 

 ceeding them when present; filaments very short, filiform ; connective often 

 prolonged. Disk obscurely 5-lobed or angled, glabrous or pubescent. Ovary 

 globular, immersed in the disk, 2-celled ; style very short, 2-fid. Nut glo- 

 bular, more or less included in the calyx-tube, produced upwards into an ob- 

 long or linear coriaceous wing, 1-celled, 1-seeded, indehiscent. Seed glo- 

 bular ; testa membranous ; albumen 0. Cotyledons thick and fleshy ; radicle 

 very short, inferior. — Climbing, glabrous or pubescent shrubs or trees. Leaves 

 alternate, penninerved. Stipules minute, deciduous. Flowers small, pedi- 

 cellate, clustered in terminal or axillary panicles. 



A genus of about 10 species, confined to the tropical regions of the Old World. 



1. V, leiocarpa, Benth. in Journ. Linn. Soc. \. 11. A glai)rous, climb- 

 ing shrub or small tree. Leaves shortly petiolate, from ovate to oblong, 



