406 RIIAMNACE.E. Sofferelia. 



S. Michauxii, Broxgn. Trailing or scrambling: twigs somewhat angled, becoming te- 

 rete, at tiist toiuentose : leaves ovate, mostly cordate, acute or acuminate, somewhat mucro- 

 uate, incurvcd-serrulate or ou lax shoots sharply serrate; the larger about 1^ inches long, 

 their tomentose petioles 1 or 2 lines long ; veins beueatii and occasionally tiie surface some- 

 what tomentose : inflorescence at length am])le, loose, leafless above, terminating the upper 

 branches, the lower spikes spreading from tlie axils of the ui)perniost foliar leaves : flowers 

 very fragrant : fruit 4 lines long, sessile. — Mem. Klianin. .53, & Ann. Sci. Nat. x. 3G0 ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 263 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 176, t. 166 ; Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 358; 

 Trelease, 1. c. 367. Rham7ius minutiflorus, Michx. Fl. i. 154; Nutt. Gen. i. 152; Pursh, Fl. 

 i. 166; Ell. Sk. i. 289; DC. Prodr. ii. 27. Afarca parviflora, Raf. Silv. Tellur. 30. 

 Segregatia Michauxii, Wood, Cla.ss-Book, ed. of 1861, 292. — South Carolina to Alabama, 

 around the coast. 



S. "Wrightii, Watson. Shrubby, as much as ten feet high : leaves elliptical or obovate, 

 not cordate, glabrescent, half inch to nearly an inch long : inflorescence often simpler, 

 with mostly short lateral branches. — Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 358; Trelease, 1. c. 367. — 

 W. Texas to tlie Sta. Rita Mountains of Arizona. (Northern Mex., Lower Calif.) 



8. RHAMNUS, Tourn. Buckthorn. ('Pa/ivos, the ancient Greek name 

 of the Buckthorn.) — Shrubs or small trees, mostly spineless, with alternate, 

 obliquely opposite or opposite, entire to serrulate or pungently toothed pinnately 

 veined mostly thin and ample leaves with often lanceolate but caducous stipules, 

 and small sometimes dioecious flowers solitary in the lower axils or in sessile or 

 peduncled axillary umbels. — Inst. 593, t. 366 ; L. Gen. no. 165 ; Brongn. Mem. 

 llhamn. 53, & Ann. Sc. Nat. x. 362 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 179 ; Benth. & Hook. 

 Gen. i. 377 ; Baill. Hist. PI. vi. 74 ; Trelease, Trans. St. Louis Acad. v. 361, 365 ; 

 Sargent, Silv. ii. 31 ; "VVeberbauer in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ah. 

 5, 409. — Includes Frangula, sometimes kept apart. Cosmopolitan but chiefly of 

 the north-temperate zone. 



* Flowers mostly polygamo-dicecious, appearing nearly with the leaves, without a common 

 peduncle: seeds grooved down the back (except in R. ulnifolia), the rhaphe lying in the 

 groove ; cotyledons relatively thin, curved with the seed : winter buds scaly. 

 •i— Leaves firm though rather thin, evergreen, often pungently tootlied : flowers 4-merous : 

 fruit red, the mostly 2 cocci widely dehiscent on the inner angle. 

 R. crocea, Nutt. Spreading shrub or rarely arborescent, with rather rod bark : twigs di- 

 varicate, puberulent or glabrescent, often ending in blunt spines: leaves alternate or fas- 

 cicled, glossy, mostly bronzed beneath, glabrous or somewhat puberulent on the petiole and 

 midrib beneath, nearly round to broadly ovate or elliptical, emarginate tomucronate-acumi- 

 nate, glandular-dentate or bidenticulate, 3 to 12 lines, their petioles 1 or 2 lines long: 

 flowers mostly apetalous : fruit 2 or 3 lines long : pedicels at length 1 to 2 or exceptionally 

 3 lines long. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 261 ; Jour. Hort. Soc. London, vi. 217, with fig. ; 

 Wats. Cat. PI. Wheeler, 7, & Proc Am. Acad. xi. 114; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 100; 

 M. K. Curran, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 251 ; Trelease, 1. c. 365 ; Sargent, Card. & For. 

 ii. 364, & Silv. ii. 33, t. 59. R. ilici/olia, Kell. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ii. 37. — California, from 

 Mariposa County southward, chiefly in the Coast Range. (Lower Calif.) 



Var. insularis, Sargent, is an arborescent form differing in its grayer bark, larger 

 less toothed leaves, longer flowers and fruit (commonly 3 lines long), and said to flower six 

 weeks later than the ordinary form. — Gard. & For. ii. 364, & Silv. ii.34, t. 60. R. insularis, 

 Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. ii. 392, & Pittonia, i. 201. R. pirifolia, Greene, Pittonia, iii. 

 15. — Islands of California and Lower California from Sta. Barbara southward, also about 

 San Diego. 



Var. pilosa, Trelease, is a form with the mostly larger, toothed' leaves, and the 

 inflorescence, strikingly gray-velvety. — Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 251, & Trans. St. 

 Louis Acad. v. 365; Sargent, Silv. ii. 33. — San Diego County, California, passing into the 

 ty]ie through Arizona specimens, Palmer, Jones. 



