CHAPTER L: THE BUCKTHORNS 



Family Rhamnace.^ 



Genus RHAMNUS, Linn. 



Ornamental trees and shrubs, with bitter juice. Leaves 

 simple, alternate, entire or toothed. Flowers inconspicuous, 

 greenish, in axillary clusters. Fruit berry-like, black or red. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Leaves deciduous. (Eastern.) 



(R. Caroliniand) Indian cherry 

 AA. Leaves evergreen, or nearly so. (Western.) 

 B. Length, | to i^ inches, holly-like. 



{R. crocea) evergreen buckthorn 

 BB. Length, i to 7 inches, deciduous or persistent. 



{R. Purshiand) cascara buckthorn 



The buckthorns are small, ornamental tree and shrubs. 

 There are sixty species of them, widely distributed in the Northern 

 Hemisphere, with a few tropical species, and representatives in 

 South Africa and Brazil. 



Of our three natives, the Indian cherry is rarely seen in 

 cultivation. When people plant buckthorns they order them of 

 nurserymen who offer the vigorous English Rhamnus cathariica, a 

 clean-leaved, handsome, thorny shrub, beset in autumn with 

 black berries clustered close to the twigs. Its fruit yields a 

 valuable medicinal principle, oftenest sold in the form of a syrup. 

 The bark furnishes a yellow dye. Another European buckthorn, 

 R. jrangula, appears in our shrubbery borders, its shining leaves 

 brightened by large red berries. The wood of this species makes 

 valuable charcoal for gunpowder. 



Morocco leather is dyed yellow with the berry of a French 

 buckthorn. Painters get their "China green" from two Chinese 

 species. Jujube paste is made from the fruit of a member of 

 this family. The "Lotus-eaters" of ancient literature are now 



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