74 



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 x furnishes a bard and 

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

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

 maderaspatana 3 (fig. 46, 47) is used to make mats and string, 

 remarkable for their tenacity aud durability. Colubrina rcclinata 4 

 and ferruginosa s 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 G served as tattooing needles to the 

 savages of New Zealand. Several Rhamnaeece are ornamental. There, 

 are seen in our gardens many Buckthorns with beautiful persistent 

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

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

 and orangeries Pomaderris, Trymaliums, Phi/licas, Cryptandras, 

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

 nearly the same kind of culture ; Hovcnia dulcis, in its foliage and 

 odorous flowers much resembling certain Tilias, and bearing our 

 mild winters as well as Colletia cruciata, remarkable for the 

 enormous development of its spinesccnt branches. 



1 Rhamnus capensis Thi'nb. Prmlr, i. 44; 

 Ft Cap. ii. 73. — Ceanothus capensis DC. (syn ? 

 of S. C'ommersoni Ad. Br.). — Habv. and Sond. 

 Fl. Cap. i. 477 (Katdoon). 



5 Tiiunb. ex Rosenth. op. eit. 1154. 



3 G-tRTN. Fruct. i. 223, t. 49.— DC. Prodr. i. 

 38. — Rosenth. op. cit. 798. 



4 Ad Br. Rhamn. 62. — Ceanothus reclinatus 

 Lhér. 



5 Ad. Br. loc. cit. — Rhamnus oolubrinus L. — 

 Ceanothus colubrinus Lamk. 



6 Raoul. Choix de PI. 29. — Hook. f. Man. 

 N.-Zeal. Fl. 30.. — Notophtena Toumatou Miers 

 Contrib. i. 272, t. 37, F. 



