CLASS V. ORDER I. 95 



long prickles so as to reseml)le a burr. — Woods. — Walpole, Han- 

 over, N. H. — June, 



RiBEs LACusTRE. PcTs. Swamp Gooseberry. 



Subaxillary thorns few ; stem hispid-aculeate ; 

 leaves divided into lobes beyond the middle; petioles 

 villous; berries racemose, hispid. 



A handsome shrub with dissected leaves. The older branches 

 are smooth with one or more deflexed axillary spires. Young 

 branches hispid with small reflexed prickles. Petioles slender, 

 villous, with fine scattered hairs. Leaves deeply five lobed, the 

 lobes cut and toothed, like those of some Geraniums. Peduncles 

 slender, hispid. Fruit on rather long pedicels, hispid. — In the 

 Notch of the "White mountains, by the side of the Saco river. 



104. RHAMNUS. 

 Rhamnus catharticus. Buckthorn. 



Spines terminal ; flowers four cleft, dioecious ; leaves 

 ovate; berry four seeded. 



This shrub, which probably came from Europe, is now natu- 

 ralized about woods and fences, though not comvnon. It is a 

 rigid bushy shrub, with its branches terminating in short, strong 

 thorns. Leaves smooth, serrated, with several lateral ribs. 

 Flowers small yellowish-green, mostly but not always dioecious. 

 Stigma four cleft. Berries round, black, medicinal. The Buck- 

 thorn is found to make a good hedge, being less liable to be at- 

 tacked with worms, than the other thorns. — Brookline, Wal- 

 tham. — May, 



105. CEANOTHUS. 

 Ceanothus Americana. L. Jersey Tea. 



Leaves heart-ovate, acuminate, triply nerved ; pan- 

 icles axillary, elongated. Willd. 



A small white flowering shrub, not unfrequent in dry or 

 sandy soils. Leaves two or three inches long, and one broad, 

 finely serrate and tapering into a long point. From the axils of 

 the upper leaves come out leafless branches bearing crowded 



