SAnxDACE-i:. 220 



rise; but generally these branches remain as short spurs terminated 

 by spines, -n'hile those that produce elongated leafy shoots rarely 

 bear any flowers. 



Bernj-hearing Alder, or Breaking BucJdhorn. 



French, Nerpi-un Bourdaine. German, Faulhaum, PtdverJtolz. 

 This species of the genus possesses the same qualities as the last one describecl. 

 Tlie bark and berries are occasionally used in veterinary practice. The bark and leaves 

 yield a yellow dye niuch used in Russia ; when mixed \vith salts of iron it turns black. 

 The berries when unripe aflFord a good green colour, readily taken by wooUen stuffs ; 

 wlien ripe they give various shades of blue and grey. The colouring matter in this, 

 as in the Duckthorn, is principally a substance called " rhamnin." The wood of the 

 Alder Buckthorn is too small to be of much value excepting for charcoal, for which 

 puiiiose it is preferred by the gunpowder makers to almost any other tree, as it yields a 

 very light and inflammable kind. 



ORDER XXIV.— S APINDACE^. 



Trees (more rarely shrubs or undcrshrubs), sometimes climbing 

 or twining, with watery sap which is very rarely bitter. Leaves 

 frequently evergreen, alternate, often compound. Inflorescence 

 various. Flowers generally small, greenish or white, regular or 

 irregular, most commonly poly gamo -dioecious. Sepals -4 or 5 

 (rarely more or none), free or more or less united, often unequal, 

 imbricated or rarely valvate. Petals 3 to 5 or none, equal or 

 unequal, the posterior one frequently absent, often with a scale or 

 tuft of hairs within, imbricated. Disk more or less conspicuous, 

 more or less one-sided. Stamens 8 (rarely 5 or 10, very rarely 

 fewer or more), commonly liypogynous and inserted within the 

 disk. Filaments generally elongated. Ovary entire, lobed or partite, 

 generally 3- (more rarely 1- to 4-) celled. Style simple or divided. 

 Ovules usually 1 or 2 in each cell, ascending from an axial placenta. 

 Funiculus often swollen. Fruit and seed various. Albumen gene- 

 rally none. Ptadicle short, inferior. 



Sl-b-Order L— AOERINE^. 



Flowers regular. Sepals and petals equal in number, or tho 

 latter absent. Stamens usually 8, inserted above the disk when it 

 is present. Fruit with 2 (or accidentally 3 or 4) indebiscent 

 samaroid lobes. Seeds without an arillus and without albumen. 



