66 uhamnacEjE. [Mamnacea. 



Order XXXIIT. RHAMNACE^J. 



Calyx 4- or 5 -cleft, valvate in the bud, lined at the base with the more or 

 less thickened disk. Petals usually as many, small, unguiculate, hood-shaped 

 at the top or rarely flat, inserted at the base of the lobes of the calyx and 

 alternating with them, or rarely wanting. Stamens as many as the petals and 

 opposite to them. Ovary either free upon the disk, or more or less immersed 

 in it, 2- to 4-celled, with a single erect ovule in each cell ; the styles free or 

 combined into one. Trait free or adherent to the enlarged persistent base of 

 the calyx, indehiscent and entire or separating into two or more indehiscent 

 1 -seeded carpels. Albumen fleshy, usually thin, or sometimes none. Radicle 

 inferior. Cotyledons flat. — Trees, shrubs, or climbers, often thorny. Leaves 

 simple, alternate, or rarely opposite. Stipules minute. Flowers small, usually 

 clustered or paniculate. 



A considerable Order, widely spread over most parts of the globe. 

 Fruit dry, indehiscent. 



Fruit hemispherical at the base, expanded into a broad flat top. Leaves 



3-nerved 1. Paliurus. 



Fruit globular at the base, ending in a flat oblong wing. Leaves pin- 



nately nerved 2. Ventilagq. 



Fruit a berry or drupe. 



Ovary half-immersed in the disk, 2-celled. Flowers usually pedicellate, 



the clustei's axillary or racemose 3. Berchemia. 



Ovary surrounded by the disk, 3-celled. Flowers minute sessile, the 



clusters paniculate 4. Sageretia. 



Ovary free, but shorter than the calyx-tube. Flowers pedicellate, the 



clusters or umbels all axillary 5. Rhamnus, 



1. PALIURUS, Tourn. 



Petals and stamens 5. Ovary half-immersed in the disk, 3-celled, with 3 

 oblong stigmas. Fruit dry, indehiscent, hemispherical and 3-celled at the 

 base, expanded at the top into a broad flat orbicular or slightly 3-lobed disk, 

 very thin at the edge. Seeds one in each cell, with a fleshy albumen. — Shrubs 

 or trees. Leaves alternate, 3-nerved ; the stipules usually persistent and con- 

 verted into prickles. 



A small genus, confined to southern Europe and some parts of central and eastern Asia. 



1. P. Aubletii, Schult. ; Hook, and Am. Bot. Beech. 177. A moderate- 

 sized tree, the young branches and leaves more or less tomentose, but soon 

 becoming glabrous. Stipulary prickles rarely wanting, usually both straight 

 (not one straight and the other recurved, as in the European species). Leaves 

 stalked, ovate, acute, 1 to 2 in. long, crenately serrate, with 3 principal veins 

 veiy prominent underneath. Flowers in small axillary cymes, on very short 

 peduncles. Calyx tomentose ; the lobes triangular, about 1 line long. Petals 

 shorter. Fruit slightly tomentose, the flat top obscurely 3-lobed, from 6 to 

 9 lines diameter. 



Cultivated in the island, if not indigenous to it, Champion ; also Hance. A native of South 

 China and Formosa. 



2. VENTILAG-O, Gsertn. 

 Petals and stamens 5. Ovary immersed in the disk, 2-celled, ending in 

 2 short conical stvles or stigmas. Fruit a 1 -seeded nut, terminating in a long 



