IO2 Rhanine<z Rhamnus. 



nally. Flowers often small and green, rarely blue, yellow, or 

 white as in Ceanothus. Calyx small, tube coriaceous, with 4 

 or o valvate lobes. Petals concave, often on long slender 

 claws. Stamens equalling and opposite the petals. Fruit 

 various. There are 37 genera and about 430 species of 

 this order, from the warmer and tropical regions of the whole 

 world. 



Pcdiurus aculeatus a branching spiny shrub with small 

 3-nerved leaves, minute flowers, and curious dry fruits in which 

 the disk is enlarged, forming a circular wing is sometimes cul- 

 tivated as a, curiosity under the name of Christ's Thorn ; and 

 two or three species of the curious South American genus 

 Golletia are occasionally met with in collections. They are 

 leafless spiny shrubs, some of them with remarkably thickened 

 and flattened branches, and small white or yellowish flowers. 



1. KHAMNUS. 



Evergreen or deciduous shrubs. Flowers in axillary cymes, 

 often unisexual. Petals sometimes wanting. Disk coating the 

 calyx-tube. Fruit a drupe, with 2 to 4 hard-shelled 1 -seeded 

 stones. A genus of sixty species, found in nearly all temperate 

 and tropical countries except Australia. The name is said to 

 be of Celtic origin, signifying a tuft of branches. There are 

 two indigenous deciduous species : one, R. cathdrticus, a spiny 

 shrub with ovate serrate leaves ; and the other, R. Frdngula, 

 unarmed, with obovate entire leaves ; both have 3-nerved 

 leaves. 



1. R. Alaternus. An evergreen glabrous shrub with linear 

 or ovate-lanceolate serrate shining leaves, very variable in size, 

 and apetalous flowers. There are several varieties, differing in 

 the size, form, and variegation of the foliage. It is a native of 

 the South of Europe. R. latifolius is merely a variety of this. 



2. CEANOTHUS. 



Evergreen shrubs with alternate or rarely opposite petio- 

 late leaves. Flowers small but numerous, in terminally thyrsoid 

 cymes or panicles, blue, white or yellow. Fruit a 3-lobed drupe, 

 splitting from the axis, and opening along the inner edge. 

 Twenty-eight species have been described, all from North 

 America, chiefly from the western coast. They are rather 

 tender, and will only bear our winters in the south and west 

 or against a wall. The name was applied to a spiny plant 



