266 XXXVIII. RHAMNE^. 



American, with one Australian and one New Zealand species, the remaining 7, several of them 

 numerous in species, are endemic or nearly so, Alphitonia extending to the Pacific Islands, and 

 Pomaderris to New Zealand. The Order is a well-marked one, the floral characters separating 

 it very readily from all except Ampelide<e, from which it is distinguished by the habit, by the 

 drupaceous or capsular, not baccate fruit, and by the seeds ; but most of the genera, even the 

 most natural ones, are difficult to characterise. The differences in their flowers and fruits are 

 very trifling ; they often pass into each other by the finest gradations, and habit, foliage, and 

 inflorescence must often be relied upon for fixing generic limits. — Benth. 



Tbibe I. Ventllagrines. — Scandent unarmed shnibs w small trees. Leaves alternate. 

 Disk filling the calyx-tube. Ovary superior en- half-superior. Fruit dry, 1-celled, 1-seeded, girt 

 at the base or middle by the calyx-tube. Seeds exalbuminous. 

 Leaves peuninerved. Panicle branches elongated and raoeme-like. Nut 



1-seeded, produced into a long wing-like appendage .... . . 1. Ventilago. 



Tkibe II. Zlzyphes. — Shrubs or trees. Disk filling the calyx-tube. Finit a dry or fleshy 

 drupe, with a 1 to S-celled stone, the base or middle girt by the calyx-tube. 

 Leaves 3 or 5-nerved. Drupe succulent, the putamen woody or bony, 1 to 



4-celled. Stipules usually spinescent ... 2. Zizyphus. 



Tbibe III. Bhamnese. — Shrubs or trees. Disk lining or filling the cah/x-tube. Ovary 

 superior or half-superior. Fruit dry or Aeshy, of 3- (rarely 2 or 4) pyrenes or cocci. 

 Calyx-tube very short. Petals clawed. Style shortly bifid. Ovary 2-celled. 

 Disk margins free. Fruit juicy outside. Endocarp indehiscent, 1 rarely 



2-celled ...... .... 3. Dallachya. 



Calyx deeply 5-oleft, lobes deciduous. Petals orbicular-rhomboid, rolled 

 inwards. Filaments filiform. Disk slightly undulate at the margin. 



Fruit 3-lobed. Seeds roundish 4. Schistocaep^a. 



Drupe with a thin epioarp, covering membranous or crustaoeous cocci. 



Unarmed -5. Coluekina. 



Panicle or cyme 2 or 3-chotomous. Endocarp separating into cocci. 



Ovary immersed in the disk. Epicarp thick. Leaves white or rusty 



underneath 6. Alphitonia. 



Ovary sessile on the disk. Epicarp thin. Leaves green on both sides . 7. Emmenospekmcm. 

 Calyx campanulate or tubular. Disk none, or annular, or lining the 

 calyx-tube. Ovary partially or wholly inferior. Leaves alternate, 

 usually small and entire (except a few Pomaderrisesj. Fruit under 2 

 lines diameter. 

 Calyx-tube entirely adnate, or lined by the disk up to the lobes. Petals 

 none, or concave, not enclosing the anthers, which are either oblong 

 or on long filaments. Flowers usually pedicellate. Bracts very 



deciduous .... 8. Pomadeeeis. 



Calyx-tube produced above the ovary and disk. 

 Flowers sessile, or nearly so, in cymes, often contracted into heads 



surrounded by imbricate brown bracts .9. Stenanthemum. 



Flowers solitary or in leafy spikes, sometimes contracted into heads, 

 or pedicellate, individually surrounded by brown bracts . . . .10. Cbyptandea. 



Teiee IV. Colletleae. — Ovary free or half-immersed at the base of the calyx. Calyx-tube 

 urceolate, campanulate, or cylindrical, produced above the ovary and annular disk. Stamens in the 

 orifice of the calyx. Fruit coriaceous, containing .2 or 3 cocci, or drupaceous and the putamen 1 to 

 S-celled. — Small trees or shrubs, tlie branches opposite, often spinescent. Leaves opposite, some- 

 times small or none. Flowers fasciculate or solitary. 



Calyx campanulate or tubular, the tube produced above the ovary and 

 annular disk. Spines and small leaves opposite . 11. Disc.<.kia. 



Tribe V. Gouaniex. — Ovary inferior. Disk various. Fruit coriaceous, containing S or i 

 coeds, very often 3-ivinged or 3-angled, crotcned by the calyx-limb. — Shrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves 

 alternate, often broad. Flowers racemose, cymose. 



Fruit 3-winged. Flowers in racemose spikes .... 12. Gouania. 



1. VENTILAGO, Gartn. 



(From ventilo, to blow, and ago, to drive away ; the winged fruit being 

 easily carried by the wind.) 



Calyx 5-lobed, spreading. Petals hood-shaped or none. Stamens 5, scarcely 

 exceeding the petals when present. Disk flat or concave, filling the short calyx- 

 tube. Ovary more or less immersed in the disk, 2-celled ; style short, with 2 



