328 THE BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



THE BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



RkaninacecB, 



Trees or shrubs^ the latter erect or climbing^ 7vith stipulate^ simple, 

 mostly alternate leaves a?id tvhite, or greenish, regular flowers which 

 grow in axillary or tertniftal inflorescences. Fruit : a drupe or cap- 

 sule. 



SUPPLE=JACK. 

 Berchhnia scdndens. 



Flowers: very small ; growing in axillary or terminal clusters. Calyx: five- 

 toothed. Petals : five, about as long as the calyx. Stamens : five, with thread- 

 like filaments. Drupe: purple, oval, the crustaceous stone two-celled. Leaves: 

 alternate, with slender petioles, ovate or oblong ; pinnately veined ; the margins 

 undulate or revolute ; bright-green and lustrous above, paler below and slightly 

 rusty pubescent along the veins. A climbing, woody shrub. 



It is through swamps that this supple high-climbing shrub is usually found 

 upholding its pretty, often purplish-tinted leaves, and where in the autumn 

 it becomes conspicuous through its abundant fruit. 



INDIAN CHERRY. CAROLINA BUCKTHORN. {^Plate CIII.) 

 Rhanuius Caroliniana. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Buckthorn. Greenish. Scentless. Florida to North Carolina April-Jtine. 



and westzvard. Fruit: September. 



Flowers : very small ; perfect ; growing on a thick, axillary peduncle in rounded 

 umbels. Calyx : campanulate, five-cleft. Petals : minute ; obovate. Stamens : 

 short. Drupe :\A2icV when ripe, sweet, rounded. Leaves: alternate, with slender 

 pubescent petioles and minute, early falling stipules; elliptical, or broadly oblong, 

 rounded or pointed at the base, finely and obscurely serrate, or entire; bright-green 

 and lustrous, velvety pubescent along the veins underneath ; deciduous. A shrub, 

 or small tree. 



Sometimes with the red maples, the Carolina buckthorn grows along 

 stream borders and in low grounds from Tennessee and Kentucky to Florida 

 and Texas. As a shrub even it becomes quite tall, and in western Florida 

 is a slender, spreading tree about twenty-five or thirty feet high. Its 

 sweet, cherry-like fruit is very good to the taste ; but the plant seems to have 

 the unfortunate, traditionary reputation of foreboding misfortune whenever 

 dreamed about. 



