Buckthorn ( Rhamnacece ) 61 



Found, in damp and shady places from New York to 

 Illinois, and southward. 



An upright or sometimes straggling shrub, two to five 

 feet high. 



10. Family RHAMNACECE. (Buckthorn Fam.) 



Floivers, greenish or white, small and regular (sometimes with the 

 petals wanting). Petals, when present, four to five, not united. 

 Sepals, four to five. Stamens, of the same number as the petals, 

 and alternate with them. Seed-case, free from the calyx, or some- 

 times united to it, two- to five-celled. Seeds, one in each cell. 

 Stamens and petals inserted along the edge of a fleshy disk, which 

 lines the tube of the calyx, and in Ceanothus unites it to the lower 

 part of the seed-case. 



Leaves, simple, alternate, fine-toothed. 



Fruit, a berry-like drupe or a capsule. 



Guide to the Genera. 



F1 W liE'- g a re dm iS e ; FrUk fl6Shy ^ berry "[ (0 Rhamnus (Buckthorns). 

 Flowers/white ; Fruit dry and at length split- ) } Ceanothus (New j ers eyTe a , etc.). 

 ting ; a capsule. ) 



(i) Genus Rhamnus, Tourn. (Buckthorns.) 



Fig. 16. Lance-Leaved Buckthorn. R. lanceolata, Pursh. 



Flowers, yellowish-green, small, at the sides of the 

 branches; found sometimes in two slightly different 

 forms on different bushes, but both forms perfect. 

 Petals, four and deeply notched. Sepals, four. Sta- 

 mens, four. Seed-case, free, two- to four-celled. May. 



Leaves, oval and oblong, pointed, or on the flowering 

 shoots sometimes blunted. 



Fruit, about the size of a small pea, black and fleshy. 

 Seeds, two, deeply grooved ; a berry-like drupe. 



Found, from Pennsylvania to Illinois and Tennessee, 

 and westward. 

 A tall, unarmed shrub. 



