376 



COLLETIA 



COLLETIA, CRUCIATA, Hooker. RHAMNACE/E. 



(Bot Ma^., t. 5033; C. spinosa, Hort. not Lamarck; C. bictoniensis, Lindley^) 



A dimorphic shrub up to 10 ft. high, armed with spines of one 

 of two kinds; the one flat, triangular, rigid, frequently i-J ins. wide at 

 the base, the other flattish, bodkin-shaped, sharply pointed, comparatively 

 slender, and from \ to ij ins. long. As a rule a plant has spines of 

 the triangular kind^only; but in very rare instances the two kinds are 

 found on one branch. These spines are really brancWets producing 



COCCULUS TR1LOBUS. 



leaves and flowers in the usual way ; they are arranged in pairs, each pair 

 set at right angles to the next. Leaves very small, scanty, or even absent, 

 each one \ in. or so long, ovate, and toothed. Flowers produced from 

 below the spines usually singly or in pairs, occasionally in fours ; they 

 have no petals, and the calyx is tubular, yellowish white, swollen at the 

 base, divided at the mouth into five reflexed lobes ; the whole flower and 

 stalk combined are little more than \ in. long. 



This shrub, so uncommon of aspect in both its forms, has no great beauty 

 of flower, but it is one of the most grotesquely and formidably armed, as. well 

 as one of the most interesting, of all hardy plants. It was introduced from 

 Uruguay about 1824. The curious fact that the plant with large, flat, triangular 



