\s)hicli have their Sexes dioecious. 307 



time, at which the flowers of the female sex are developed. The flowers are 

 not more showy than the flower-buds, except that they are more tumid, and the 

 spikes, doubtless, somewhat enlarged in consequence. They have not a corolla ; 

 and the sepals do not diverge and display the yellow anthers of the stamens 

 they enclose, as shown in 13879a; in which the flower is, I presume, so 

 shown for the purpose of botanical iilustration. 



The female sex. The flowers are borne upon the basai part of the shoots 

 that are produced in the spring {13879.6); and the protrusion of these is, 

 1 think, usually commenced in the after part of April : this shoot, as elongated 

 in the course of the season of growth, is shown in 13879. d, with the fruit at 

 its base in the situation the female flowers had occupied. It has been intended, 

 I cannot doubt, to represent the flowers at the point b in the annexed figure. 

 In Smith's generic character of /fippdphae, in E.F. iv.237., the words "Flowers 

 from the same buds [as the leaves], below the leaves, aggregate, small, green- 

 ish," are applicable to the flowers of the female ; and although these flowers 

 may be situate below the main tuft of leaves that is to be separated as the 

 shoot shall be lengthened, and the leaves rendered farther asunder, yet it 

 appears that smaller leaves, perhaps only rudimentary ones, are below the 

 larger ones, among the flowers ; and that the flowers themselves are situated 

 singly in the axils of these leaves. They seem shown to be so in Nees ab 

 Esenbeck's excellent figures (^Gen. Florce GermaniccB Icon, et Descript. illus- 

 trata). In Encyc. of Plants, part of the generic character is, " Male flowers in 

 a catkin, tetrandrous. Female solitary in the axillae of the leaves : " and it 

 may be hence concluded that the words of Smith, " Flowers green, minute, 

 solitary in the bosoms of some of the lowermost leaves while very young," in 

 his detailed description of H. rhamnoides Eng. Flora, iv. 24^8., relate to the 

 flowers of the female sex only. 



The fruit of the H. rhamnoides var. angustifolia, as seen dried and pressed in 

 a dried specimen now present, reminds one of the fruit of the asparagus when 

 shrivelled or pressed ; hence it is much larger, say thrice the size shown in the 

 figure (13879. c). Its form cannot be stated fi'om the specimens: that given 

 in the figure agrees with Smith's description quoted below. As to its struc- 

 ture, it is termed a berry by Smith ; a drupe, or an achsenium clothed with 

 the fleshy perianth, by Nees ab Esenbeck ; and this last definition agrees with 

 that given of the fruit of the genus in Encyc. of Plants, namely, " fruit formed 

 of a berried calyx and akenium." That which is here called " achaenium " 

 Smith has termed, in Eng. Flora, iv. 237., a solitary seed " invested with a 

 double membranous tunic, the outermost, perhaps, only the proper lining of 

 the cell." Notices on these technical points may be less pleasing to the 

 reader, and here less in place, than the following information, which will, it is 

 hoped, beside pleasing, tend to cause plants of the female sex of the H. rham- 

 noides to be more sought for and planted in a number more equal with the 

 male than seems to have been its case hitherto. Smith, in his Eng. Flora, 

 has thus noted in relation to the fruit of H. rhamnoides : — " Berries some- 

 what stalked, rather elliptical, orange-coloured, simply but powerfully acid, 

 pleasant enough when preserved with sugar. They are seldom, if ever, 

 ripened in gardens [British ones], though the shrub is commonly cultivated 

 for the beauty and singularity of its foliage. Gardeners should attend to 

 the flowers being dioecious, and plant both sorts together." It is above 

 made known that Messrs. Loddiges have a plant of the female sex ; and, 

 doubtless, they cultivate plants of it for sale. 



On the fruit, this farther information, not novel, will, doubtless, be pleasing 

 to those not previously possessed of it. Smith has also noted that " These 

 berries afford a kind of sauce to the poor in Sweden and the south of France- 

 Haller speaks of them as ill-flavoured. Rousseau gives an account of the sin- 

 gular politeness of a young Frenchman, the companion of his walks, who, 

 seeing him gather and eat this fruit, did not presume to warn him of its being 



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