Rhamnus catharticus, 
THE PURGING BUCKTHORN. 
Synonymes. 
Rhamnus catharticus, 
Nerprun cathartique, 
Abfiihrender Kreuzdorn, 
Ramno catartico, 
Ramno purgativo, 
White Thorn, 
Buckthorn, 
' LiNNiEUS, Species Plantarum. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
- Don, Miller's Dictionary. 
| Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
\ Torkey and Gray, Flora of North America. 
France. 
Germany. 
Italy. 
Spain. 
Modern Greece. 
Britain and Anglo- America. 
Derivation. The specific name, catharticus, is derived from the Greek kathairo, to purge, from the medicinal nature of the 
berries of this tree. 
Engravings. Woodville, Medical Botany, pi. 114; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, ii., figure 198, etv., pi. 70, and the 
figures below. 
Specific Characters. Erect. Leaves ovate, toothed. Flowers in fascicles, polygamo-dioecious. Berries 
4-seeded, rather globose. Don, Miller's Diet. 
Description. 
HE Rhamnus catharti- 
cus is a deciduous shrub 
or low tree, growing, 
I0&SSH when wild, to a height of 
eight or ten feet, and from twelve to fifteen feet 
in a state of cultivation. It naturally partakes 
the character of a bush, unless it is carefully- 
trained to a single stem. Its branches are 
numerous and irregular, the young shoots of 
which have a smooth, grayish-brown bark ; 
but the older branches are rough and armed 
with short thorns. The leaves on old trees are 
ribbed, smooth, about an inch in length, and 
from half an inch to three-fourths of an inch 
in width, and of a bright-green colour ; but on 
young plants, or in hedges, they are often found 
from two inches to two inches and a half in 
length, and nearly as broad as they are long. 
The flowers, which appear in May and June, are of a yellowish-green colour. 
They are, for the most part, hermaphrodite, clustered when grown wild, but 
fewer and nearly solitary in a state of cultivation. The berries are of a bluish- 
black, globular in their form, with four cells, and as many seeds, and are ripe in 
Britain and the northern parts of the United States in October. It often remains 
on the tree after the leaves have fallen. 
Geography and History. The Rhamnus catharticus is indigenous to Europe 
and the north of Asia. In Britain it is found native in the woods, and according 
to Pallas, it is common in the southern parts of Siberia. It has also become 
indigenous in the vicinity of Boston, in Massachusetts, and near West Point, 
