THE ABT ALBUM OF NEW ZEALAND FLORA. 



89 



jiiice of the ripe berries mixed with lime forms the sap green of painters ; but if the 

 berries be gathered late in the autumn, the juice is purple. The berries were formerly- 

 used by rustic practitioners as a purgative medicine ; Imt, on account of the violence of 

 their action, has fallen into disrepute, although Syrup of Buckthorn is included in our 

 pharmacopoeias. The Alder Buckthorn, U. Franyula also affords a colovu'ing matter, and 

 its Avood yields a superior charcoal for making gunpowder. But the most important 

 commercial product of the genus is the dyeing material used by calico printers, and 

 known as " Yellow berries," or " Persian berries," considerable quantities of which are 

 annually imported from Asiatic Turkey and Persia. Although usually ascribed to H. 

 infectorius, the Staining Buckthorn, they are probably collected indiscriminately from 

 several species. The berries of B. infectorius are used for dyeing leather yellow, and 

 the Turkey leather, or yellow Morocco, is generally supposed to be coloured by them. 

 From the bark of two species, E. c/iIoro2}Iionts and H. utilis, the Chinese pre2)are a 

 beautiful green dy^e, called by them " Tokao," and by our merchants " Chinese green 

 indigo," considerable quantities of which have been imported into Lyons, in France, and 

 used for dyeing silks, the shades of green imjiarted by it being exceedingly beautiful, 

 especially when seen under the influence of artificial light. A similar dye has since been 

 extracted from JR. catharticiis. The name of the order is derived from the Celtic word 

 ram, signifying a tuft of branches, which the Greeks have changed to rluoniios, and the 

 Latins to ramus. All the species are easily propagated by seeds or layers, and most of 

 them by cuttings. They will grow in any soil that is dry. The New Zealand genera, 

 which are also Australian, consist of: — (1). Pomaderris, tomentose shrubs, Avith 

 alternate leaves ; (2). Disc aria, a spiny glabrous bush, with leaves ojjposite, or none 



at all. =_^^_^_^=_^_^ 



GENUS I. 



POMADERRIS {Lahill.) The Pomaderris. 



Generic Chakactek. — Shrubs, more or less covered 

 with stellate down. Leaves persistent, alternate. Flowers 

 small, in umbellate cjmes, usually pedicelled; bracts, deciduous. 

 Calyx tube aduate with the ovary ; limb, 5-lobed, deciduous 

 or reflexed. Petals, 5 or none. Stamens, 5 ; filaments longer 



than the jietals ; anthers free. Disk, epigynous. Ovary more 

 or less inferior; style, short, trifid. Capsule small, its 

 3-valvcd tip free, containing 3 plano-convex cocci, which split 

 down the face, or open by the falling away of an oblong lid. — 

 Handbook of the Neio Zealand Flora, p. 43. 



Description, etc. — A genus of about twenty species, peculiar to Australia, Tasmania, 

 and New Zealand. The majority of them are found in the former countries, tln-ee only 

 belongmg to New Zealand. They are all erect, branchmg shrubs, or rarely small trees. 

 They are distinguished from Cryptandra and other allied genera by the flowers being 

 destitute of bracts, by the stamens being longer than th(> petals, and by the three one- 



