u 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Ithamnus pumilus. 



Rhammts Franqula. 



Fig. 42. Flower (^). 



Rhamnus^ are known. They are trees or shrubs, with alternate 

 leaves, sometimes more 

 or less opposite, cadu- 

 cous or persistent, peti- 

 olate, penninerved and 

 entire or dentate, ac- 

 companied by two small 

 lateral caducous stipules. 

 The flowers ^ are axillary. Fig. 43. Fi-uit {\). Fig. 44. Trans. 



, . T sect, of fruit (4). 



arranged m cymes rarely 

 solitaiy, more generally compound or fasciculate, or united in a 

 cluster on a small common axis. 



Beside Rkamnus are ranged, in this very strictly natural group, 

 genera diflPering from it only in characters of very small value which 

 would otherwise be considered of no importance. Such are Rhamni- 

 dium, trees or shrubs of tropical America, which have the leaves 

 opposite or nearly so, and the flowers of the Buckthorns with a re- 

 ceptacle and a disk less deep, an ovary of two uniovulate cells and a 

 fruit described as a berry with membranous endocarp, but which 

 almost always finally becomes dry and thin, indehiscent, nearly ovoid, 

 crowned with an apicule representing the remains of the style, and 

 basally inserted in a persistent receptacular capsule ; ^ KarvnnsJcia^ 

 native of Mexico and the neighbouring regions of North America, 

 having nearly the leaves of Rhamnidium^ but finely punctate ; the 

 same flowers and fruits ; but the two or three incomplete cells of the 

 ovary contain each two ascending ovules instead of only one. 



The Emmenosperma of Oceania, with alternate or opposite leaves, 



1 Lher. Sert. t. 5, 8, 9. — Duham. Arbr. ed. 

 nov. iii. t. 8, 10, 13, 15.— H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et 

 Spec. vii. t. 616, 617.— Waldst. et Kit. PI. 

 Rar. Emg. t. 255.— Pall. Fl. Ross. ii. t. 61, 62. 

 — Jacq. Fl. Auslr. t. 53. — Vent. PL Malmais, t. 

 34.— Webb. Phyt. Canar. t. 67.— Gren. et 

 GoDR. Fl.de Fr. i. 335.— Cav. Icon. t. 181, 182.— 

 Bl. Rij'dr. 1139.— Hook. Fl. Bor.-Amer. t. 42-44. 

 — Wight, Icon. t. 159. — A. Gray, Man. ed. 5, 

 114, 115.— C. Gay, i^Z. Chil. ii. 17.— Harv. and 

 SoND. Fl. Cap. i. 476.— Oliv. Fl. trop. Afr, i. 

 381.— Tmv. Enum. pi. Zeyl. 74.— Miq. Fl. Ltd.- 

 Bat. i. p. i. 645.— Griseb. Fl. Brit. W.-Ind. 

 99 {Franffula).—Boi6s. Fl. Or. ii. 14.— Seem. 

 FL VU. 41.— JReiss. Mart. FL Bras. Rhawn. 90, 

 t. 29 {Frangula). — Tr. Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, xvi. 



379. — Maxim. Rhamn. Or.-Asiat. 6 (ex Mem. 

 Acad. Petersb. ser. 7, x). — ^Walp. Ann. i. 192 ; 

 ii. 267 ; iii. 842 ; vii. 588. 



2 Greenish, yellow, or whitish. 



3 Macrorhamnus, a tree of Madagascar, with 

 sub-opposite leaves, large 6-7-nerved at the 

 base, with seeds flattened, otherwise analogous 

 to those of R/tamnus, cannot be definitely 

 classed because its flowers are unknown. But 

 its drupaceous superior free fruit indicates an 

 alliance with the genera here collected, at the 

 same time it is distinguished from them by its 

 cocci with elastic dehiscence similar to those of 

 the Euphorbiacece, and separating at maturity 

 from a fleshy mesocarp, itself divided into 

 three bifid pannels. 



