U NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



In many parts heels of shoes and matches are made of the wood of 

 R,frangula^ otherwise very indifferent and more generally employed 

 for heating and for the manufacture of charcoal, a constituent of 

 gunpowder. The wood of the common Jujube is sometimes employed 

 in turnery. At the Cape, Scutia capensis^ furnishes a hard and 

 durable wood, and that of Rhamnus celtifolia ^ serves to make axle- 

 trees, yokes, and barrels. In India the textile bark of Ventilago 

 maderaspatana^ (fig. 46, 47) is used to make mats and string, 

 remarkable for their tenacity and durability. Coluhrina reclinata ^ 

 and ferruginosa ^ of the Antilles have exceptionally a wood so hard 

 that they constitute one of the iron woods of this country. The sharp 

 spines of Discaria Toumatou ^ served as tattooing needles to the 

 savages of New Zealand. Several Rhamnacem are ornamental. There 

 are seen in our gardens many Buckthorns with beautiful persistent 

 leaves; Jujubes; Paliurus mistralis, a very elegant plant; charming 

 Ceanothus Avith white, pink, or blue flowers ; and in our greenhouses 

 and orangeries Fomaderris^ Trymaliunis^ Vhylicas^ Cryptandras^ 

 having sometimes the foliage and habit of the Heaths, and requiring 

 nearly the same kind of culture ; Hovenia dulcis^ in its foliage and 

 odorous flowers much resembling certaiu Tilias^ and bearing our 

 mild winters as well as Colletia cruciata^ remarkable for the 

 enormous development of its spinescent branches. 



1 Rhamnus capensts Thunb. Prodr. i. 44 ; ^ Ad Br. Ehamn. 62. — Ceanothus reclinatus 



Fl Cap. ii. 73. — Ceanothus capensis DC. (syn ? Lheu. 



of S. Commersoni Ad. Br.). — Harv. and Sond. ^ Ad. Br. loc. cit. — Rhamnus colubrinus L. — 



Fl. Cap. i. 477 {Katdoon). Ceanothus colubrinus Lamk. 



^ Thunb. ex Eosenth. op. eit. 1154. « Raoul. Choix de PI. 29. — Hook. r. Man. 



a (^s:B.TS.Fruct. i. 223, t. 49.— DC. Prodr. i. N.-Zeal. FL 30..—Notoph(ena Toumatou Miers 



38.— Eosenth. op. cit. 798. Contrib. i. 272, t. 37, F. 



t 



