IQQ RHAMNACE^. Kariumskin. 



entire, 6 to 10 lines long, attenuate into a short slender petiole, coriaceous, penni- 

 nerved ; stipules minute, deciduous : peduncles 1 - 3-flowered, recurved in fruit : 

 fruit nearly dry, ovate, apiculate, free from the disk, 6 to 8 lines long, lemon-yellow ; 

 peduncle half an inch long : nut very thick and hard, 1 - 3-celled, 1-3 seeded : 

 seed narrowly ohlong, without albumen : embryo green. — Bot. Mex. Bound. 46. 



Frequent in gravelly ravines near San Felipe, San Diego Co. (Parry, Thurher) ; Rock House 

 Summit, in same region {Dunn, Palmer) ; east of San Bernardino, Parry. 



2. KARWINSKIA, Zuccarini. 



Calyx 5-cleft ; the acute lobes carinate or spurred within near the apex. Petals 

 5, hooded, with short claws. Disk covering the calyx-tube. Ovary subglobose, not 

 adnate to the disk, 2 - 3-celled : ovules 2 in each cell, collateral : style 2 - 3-lobed 

 at the apex. Drupe surrounded at base by the calyx, apiculate : nut thin, 1-2- 

 celled ; the cells 1-seeded. Seed obovate, with thin albumen. — Unarmed shrubs ; 

 with somewhat opposite entire petioled leaves, penninerved and pellucid-punctate ; 

 stipules membranaceous, deciduous ; flowers small, in axillary cymes. 



A genus of only 2 or 3 species, Mexican and in the adjacent region on the north. 



1. K. Humboldtiana, Zucc. More or less pubescent, 2 to 6 feet high or 

 more, with straight brownish glandular branches : leaves oblong to ovate, \ tp 2 

 inches long, mostly rounded at base, obtuse or acute, shortly petioled, rather thick, 

 more or less ferruginous : peduncles short, several-flowered, mostly 1 -fruited : ma- 

 ture fruit ovoid, fleshy, 3 to 4 hues long, 1 - 3-seeded. 



Throughout northern Mexico, in W. Texas and New Mexico, Lower California, and probably 

 in the southeastern part of the State. 



3. RHAMNUS, Linn. Buckthorn. 



Flowers perfect or polygamo-dioecious. Calyx 4 - 5-cleft, with erect or spreading 

 lobes, the campanulate tube lined with the disk and persistent. Petals 4 or 5, or 

 "none, on the margin of the disk ; claws short. Stamens 4 or 5 : fllaments very 

 short. Ovary ovoid, free, 2-4-celled: style short, 3-4-cleft. Drupe baccate, 

 containing 2 to 4 bony or cartilaginous 1-seeded nutlets, mostly indehiscent. Seed 

 obovate. — Shrubs or small trees ; with alternate petioled pinnately veined leaves, 

 small deciduous stipides, and axillary cymose or racemose small greenish flowers. 



About 60 species, most frequent in the temperate regions of Europe and Asia. The N. Ameri- 

 can species are six, divided equally between the eastern and western coasts. 



§ 1. Seeds and nutlets deejdy sidcate or concave on the bad; the rha2)he in the holloiv : 

 cotyledons foliaceo^is, with recurved margins : floivers mostly dioecious, solitary 

 or fascicled in the axils. — Khamnus proper. 

 i: R. alnifolia, L'Her. A shrub, 2 to 4 feet high : leaves deciduous, ovate- 

 oblong, acute at each end or acuminate, 2 or 3 inches long, crenately serrate, the 

 slender petioles sHghtly puberulent : lobes of the calyx and stamens 5 : petals want- 

 ing : fruit black, obovate, 3-lobed, three lines long, equalling the pedicels. — Hook. 

 FL i. 122, t. 42. 



Sierra Co., Lemmon. Washington Territory, and eastward to Canada and Kew England. 



2. R. crocea, Xutt. T^Iuch branched, 3 to 15 feet high, the young branches 

 pubescent : leaves evergreen, coriaceous, oblong or obovate to orbicular, obtuse or 

 retuse or acute, equally variable at base, 3 to 18 lines long, acutely and often glan- 

 dularly denticulate, glabrous, usually more or less yellowish brown or copper-colored 

 beneath ; petioles a line long or less : flowers tetramerous, apetalous : fruit about 



