226 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



perfect, small, green or yellowish, usually arranged in axillary 

 cymes. Calyx often leathery, with an obconical turbinate urceo- 

 late or cylindrical tube, and a 4- or 5-lobed limb with the lobes 

 triangulai", erect or recurved, valvate. Petals Acry small, 4, 5, 

 or none, inserted in the throat of the calyx, frequently hooded 

 and emarginatc. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted with the petals 

 and opposite to them. Disk perigynous (rarely none), simple or 

 lobed, smooth or tomentose. Ovary sessile, free or immersed in 

 the disk, wholly superior or more or less adhering to the tube 

 of the calyx, 3- (rarely 2- or 4-) celled. Style erect, generally 

 short and thick. Placentae near the base of the cells. Ovules 1 (or 

 very rarely 2) in each cell, anatropous. Fruit free or more 

 or less adhering to the tube of the calyx, generally 3-celled, 

 various, often drupaceous. Seeds solitary, ovoid-compressed, often 

 arillate at the base; seed-coat hard, leathery or membranaceous. 

 Albumen fleshy, often scanty, but rarely absent. Embryo large, 

 often greenish, with the radicle straight, inferior. 



GENUS L—R H A M N U S. lAnn. 



PloAvers perfect or polygamo-dioecious. Calyx urceolate or 

 bell-shaped, persistent, with 4 or 5 ovate-triangular erect or 

 spreading lobes keeled within. Petals 4 or 5, very small, hooded 

 or flat, inserted on the upper margin of the disk, sometimes absent. 

 Disk clothing the tube of the calyx vdthin. Pruit fleshy, round 

 or oblong, containing 2 to 4 bony or cartilaginous pyrenes or stones 

 which are nearly or quite indehiscent, and each of which contains 

 a single seed. 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate or sub-opposite leaves with small 

 deciduous stipules. Plowers small, greenish, axillary, in fasciculate 

 cymes or racemes. 



According to the be&t authorities the oarue of tliis genus comes from (ihcu^ivoq, a 

 young branch or sprout, because divided into many branches ; or we may further trace 

 the derivation to the Celtic word ram, signifying a tuft of branches, which the Greeks 

 Lave changed to pcijiioc, and the Latins to ramus. 



SPECIES I.— RHAMN US CATHARTICUS. Linn. 

 Plate CCCXVIII. 



Stem erect. Old branches generally terminating in a spine. 

 Leaves mostly opposite towards the base of the young shoots, 

 elliptical or oval-elliptical, usually slightly acuminated towards the 



