BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 106 



« Calyx free from the ovary. 



1. BERCHEMIA. Twining climbers, with alternate, straight-veined leaves. Petals 5, 

 without claws, rather longer than the stamens. Disk thick, nearly filling the bottom 

 of the caly.x. Ovary 2-celled, becoming a 2-celled, small stone-fruit. 



i. SAGEEETIA. Trailing shrubs, with opposite, persistent leaves. Petals 5, minute. 

 Ovary 3-celled, becoming a 3-seeded stone-fruit. 



3. RHAMNUS. Erect shrubs or trees. Petals 4 or 5 or 0, notched, with short claws. 



Stamens short. Ovary 2-4-ceIled, becoming a black, berry-like fruit, containing 2-4 

 cartilaginous seed-like nutlets. Flowers greenish, axillary, mostly in small clusters, 

 in early summer. Berry-like fruit mawkish. 



* » Calyx with the disk coherent with the base of the ovary and fruit. 



4, CEANOTHT'i*. Erect or depressed shrubs or undershrubs. Petals 5, hood-shaped, 



spreading, their claws and the filaments slender. Ovary .3-celled, when ripe becom- 

 ing a cartilaginous or crnstaceous 3-seeded pod. Flowers in little umbels or fascicles, 

 usually clustered in dense bunches or panicles, handsome, the calyx and even the 

 pedicels colored like the petals and stamens. Oui-s are low undershrubs, with white 

 flowers. 



1. BERCHEMIA, SUPPLEJACK. (Probably named for some 

 person. ) 



B. volilbilia, DC. Climbing on high trees, smooth, with very tough and 

 lithe stems (whence the popular name) ; leaves small, oblong-ovate and 

 simply parallel-veined ; flowers greeni.sh white, in small panicles termin- 

 ating the branchlets, in early summer; drupe purple. Common in low 

 grounds S. 



2. SAGERETIA. (Named for Sageret, an able French agriculturist.) 



S. Michailxii, Brongn. Stems vine-like and many feet long, trailing 

 in the sands along the coast from N. C, South ; leaves an inch long and 

 nearly sessile, finely serrate, .shining ; spikes of flowers slender and inter- 

 rupted, clustered ; drupe dark purple. 



3. RHAMNUS. BUCKTHORN. (The ancient name.) 



* Flowers usually dioecious ; .nutlets and seeds deeply grooved on the back; 



lointer buds scaly. 



■*- Floioers with petals, the parts in fours; leaves minutely serrate. 



R. cathdrtica, Linn. Commox Buckthorn. Cult, from Eu., for 

 hedges, run wild in a few places ; forms a small tree, with thorny branch- 

 lets, ovate or oblong leaves, and 8-4-seeded fruit. 



R. lanceol^ta, Pursh. Narrow-leaved B. Wild from Penn. S. and 

 W. ; shrub not thorny, with lanceolate or oblong leaves and 2-seeded fruit. 



H- -I- Floioers without petals ; stamens and lobes of the calyx 5. 



R. alnif6lia, L'Her. Alder-leaved B. AVild in cold swamps N. ; a 

 low .shrub, with oval, acute, serrate leaves, and 3-seeded, berry -like fruit. 



# * Floioers perfect; nutlets and seeds not furrowed; winter buds naked. 



R. Caroliniana, Walt. Indian Cherry. A thornless shrub or low 

 tree, with oblong and almost entire, rather large leaves ; flowers solitary 

 or in small clusters in the axils, in early summer on peduncles shorter 

 than the petioles ; the 8-.seeded fruit at first crimson, finally black. Wild 

 In wet grounds, from N. .7. and Ky. S. 



R. Purshiana. DC From the N. W. c«>ast, witli iiecluiirles imicli 

 longer tliiiti the petioles of the serrulate leaves, and R. Frdngula, Linn., 

 from I'Ai., with the flower clusters sessile and leaves entire, are occasion- 

 ally planted. 



