208 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



RHAMNUS, Linn. Buckthorn. 



An extensive genus containing nearly sixty species of ever- 

 green and deciduous shrubs or small trees. Flowers perfect, or 

 the sexes separated ; petals four or five, but in some species, 

 entirely wanting. Fruit, berry-like, containing two to four 

 bony or horn-like, one-seeded nutlets. Of the six indigenous 

 species, three belong to the Pacific Coast, and three to the 

 Eastern States. Only two grow to a hight of twenty feet. 



llliaimiiis ai ni folia. L'.Her. A small shrub, two to four feet 

 high, with ovate-oblong deciduous leaves. Flowers without 

 petals. Fruit black, New England to Washington Territory. 



B. California, Esch. California Buckthorn. Leaves ovate-ob- 

 long to elliptical, one to four inches long, acute or obtuse, 

 mostly rounded at the base, slightly toothed or entire, ever- 

 green. Petals very small ; fruit, blackish-purple, with thin 

 pulp, a quarter of an inch in diameter, and two to three-seeded. 

 A spreading shrub, from five to eighteen feet high, throughout 

 California. Var. tomentella, is densely white, tomentose, es- 

 pecially on the underside of the leaves. 



B. Caroli n rana, Walt. Carolina Buckthorn. Leaves three to 

 four inches long, oblong, wavy, and finely serrulate on the mar- 

 gins, the slender petioles and many-flowered clusters pubes- 

 cent ; petals five, minute. Fruit round, three-seeded. A small 

 tree, sometimes over twenty feet high, but usually a low, much- 

 branched shrub. Long Island to Florida, and west to the 

 Rocky Mountains 



B. crocea, Nutt. Red-Berried Buckthorn. Leaves evergreen, 

 thick, oblong or obovate, to orbicular, variable, an inch or an 

 inch and a half long. Flowers tetramerous, without petals. 

 Fruit one fourth of an inch long, two to four-seeded, bright red. 

 A branching shrub, four to fifteen feet high. Mountains and 

 hillsides of Southern California, and eastward into Arizona. 

 Berries eaten by the Indians, and said to color their veins red. 



B. lanccolatns, Pursh. Narrow-Leaved Buckthorn. Leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute. Flowers clustered, on short pedicels, 

 or scattered on longer pedicels. Seed black, as large as a grain 

 of pepper. A tall shrub, from Pennsylvania, southward to 

 Alabama, in swamps. 



B. Purshiana, DC. Bear Berry. Leaves deciduous, two to 

 seven inches long, one to three wide, elliptic, mostly acute, ob- 

 tuse at base, denticulate, somewhat pubescent underneath. 



