418 HOLLY TRIBE. BUCKTHORN TRIBE. 



use to which it is put in entrapping birds. The bark and leaves 

 are bitter, and have been used as a substitute for other analogous 

 substances, in the cure of intermittent fevers. From the leaves 

 of a species of Holly which is a native of South America, the 

 inhabitants of that country make an infusion, which is employed 

 as tea is among us ; this is known as Mate or Jesuits' Tea, and 

 is very extensively consumed in Brazil, Paraguay, Chili, and 

 Peru. Another species which inhabits the Southern part of 

 North America, furnishes the Indians with a similar article, 

 which is used by them as a medicine, and also as a draught of 

 etiquette at their solemn councils. Another British species is the 

 Euonymus, known under the name of spindle-tree, or prick-wood, 

 from the uses to which it is applied. It has a wood which, 

 without being hard, is very tough ; and this was formerly much 

 employed in making spindles for the spinning-wheel. Now that 

 the jenny has superseded the distaff, however, this is little used 

 except for making toothpicks and skewers; and also by watch- 

 makers, for cleaning delicate machinery, for which it is very well 

 adapted on account of the fine point with which it may be worked 

 without breaking. The second of its common names seems to 

 render it not improbable, that it was formerly used in the manu- 

 facture of those skewer-like pins, which were employed to hold 

 dress together as late as the reign of Henry VIII., when the 

 manufacture of metal pins became more general. The fruit and 

 the bark of this tree have properties, which render them poi- 

 sonous to most animals, and which give them purgative and 

 emetic effects if taken by man. 



583. Nearly allied to the last order is that of RHAMNE^:, or 

 the Buckthorn tribe ; which may, however, be readily distin- 

 guished from it by the position of the stamens, these being here 

 found opposite to the petals, or alternating with the sepals. The 

 structure of the calyx is also different, that of the Rhamneaj 

 being valvate (i. e., the sepals, before expanding, having their 

 edges in proximity with each other), whilst that of CelastrmeaE* 

 is somewhat imbricated (the sepals overlying one another). The 

 ovarium is partly enveloped, as in the last order, by the fleshy 

 disk ; and this, as the fruit ripens, grows over the ovary, and 



