Rhamnus.] rhamnack.e. 107 



or Wild Apple* tree. Leaves yellowish green, deciduous, inclosed together with 

 the flowers in conspicuous huds, with dark brown, o^ate, fringed scales, scattered, 

 alternate or opposite, on the younger and flowering branches fascicled, from about 

 li to 2 inches in length, ovate, roundish ovate, or broadly elliptical, more or less 

 shortly acuminate, rounded, subcordate or slightly attenuated at the base, usually 

 somewhat downy on both sides, but most so beneath, sometimes glabrous, finely 

 and evenly crenulato-serrulate, with gland-tipped somewhat booked seiratures ; 

 7-nerved, the 3 lateral nerves on each side of the midrib converging towards the 

 apex of the leaf, by which this shrub may be known from every olher of British 

 growth except Cornus sanguinea, but in that the leaves are larger and quite 

 entire. Petioles about half the length of the leaves or less, downy. Stipules 

 linear, deciduous. Flowers small, greenish yellow, dioecious, or sometimes, it is 

 said, polygamous, aggregate at the base of the leafy fascicles, the staminate mostly 

 very numerous and crowded into nearly globose clusters concealing the branch, 

 pistillate fewer and scattered. Pedicels solilary, single-flowered, scattered or 

 aggregated, glabrous or downy. Calyx 4-eleft, the segments ovate, acute, 3-rib- 

 bed, in the staminate flowers spreading, in the pistillate nearly erect. Petals very 

 small, particularly in the pistillate blossoms, erect, linear and obtuse. Stamens 

 erect, inserted opposite to and a little below the petals, and about the length of 

 these last ; filaments much enlarged downwards. Style cylindrical, deeply 3-, 

 4-, or'5-cleft, the segments reflexed, spreading. Ovary half inferior, round. Ber- 

 ries the size of peas, subdepresso-globose, black and shining, 4- or sometimes 

 6-celled (Roth), with one seed in each cell, often partly abortive. Seeds brownish, 

 oblong, pointed at one end ; subtrigonous, compressed on the inner side with a 

 sharp ridge, gibbous and obscurely grooved on the outer, the testa dehiscent by a 

 small foramen at the apex. Imperfect and rudimentary organs of each of the 

 two sexes exist in the flowei'S of staminate and pistillate plants alike. 



The common Buckthorn is well adapted for live fences, and makes a thick, 

 durable and handsome hedgerow, though seldom employed in this country, from 

 the preference universally given to Whitethorn as a quickset. Linneus is reported 

 to have been very partial to this shrub, and bad it planted in front of his country 

 residence at Hammerby, near Upsal. Two fine staminate bushes stand one on 

 either side of the gate before the venerable farm-house at Yaverland. 



The juice of the berries made into a syrup was formerly much in vogue medi- 

 cinally, but from the violence of its action and the introduction of belter remedies 

 is now seldom ornever prescribed by regular practitioners. The berries, when 

 gathered quite ripe, in October, stain paper of a fine green (not purple, so far as 

 I have observed), and when prepared with alum furnish the sap-green of painters. 

 The inner bark is of an orange-colour, traversed longitudinally with copious, white, 

 medullary, thready fibres ; is said to dye a beautiful yellow, and to be both purga- 

 tive and emetic. 



2. E. Frangula, L. Alder Buckthorn. Berry-beading Alder. 

 Vect. Black Alder. Stem erect unarmed, flowers 5-cleft herma- 

 phrodite, leaves obovato - elliptical or roundish entire glabrous, 

 berry 2-seeded. t Linn. Sp. PI. 280. Sm. E. Fl. i. 329. Br. 

 Fl. 92. Bah. Man. 69. E. B. iv. t. 250. Loud. Arh. Brit. ii. 

 537, fig. 209. Guimp. und Hayne, Ahhild. der Detitsch. Holtzart. 

 i. 24, t. 14 (bona). 



In moist woods and copses, swampy thickets, and damp heathy and bushy 

 places ; abundantly in the more interioV and level districts. Fl. May— August. 

 Fr. August, September. 1? . _ „ 



E. Afed.— Abundant in Stroud Wood, and in several parts of Firestone Copse. 

 In New Copse, between Ryde and Wootton Bridge, frequent. Woods between 



* Hence probably is derived one of the Swedish names for this shrub, Getappel, 

 i. e. Goat-apple, 

 f Sometimes 3-seeded, according to M. and K. 



