RHAMNACE‘—BUCKTHORN FAMILY 
INDIAN CHERRY 
Rhdmnus caroliniana. 
Found along the borders of streams in rich bottom lands. Its 
northern limit is Long Island, New York, where it is a shrub ; it be- 
comes a tree only in southern Arkansas and adjoining regions. 
Bark.—Ashen gray, slightly furrowed, often marked with dark 
blotches. Branchlets terete, reddish brown; later gray, shining. 
Bitter, acrid. 
Wood.—Light brown, sapwood almost white; light, hard, close- 
grained. Sp. gr., 0.5462; weight of cu. ft., 34.04 Ibs. 
Winter Buds.—Small, acute. 
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, feather-veined, elliptical or oblong, 
two to five inches long, one to two inches broad, wedge-shaped or 
rounded at base, serrate or crenulate, acute or acuminate; midrib 
and primary veins yellow and conspicuous. ‘] hey come out of the 
bud conduplicate and densely coated with russet tomentum, when 
full grown are dark yellow green, smooth above, paler and somewhat 
hairy beneath. Petioles long, slender, downy. Stipules minute, 
caducous. 
Flowers.—May, June, when leaves are half grown; perfect or 
polygamo-dicecious, green, axillary, borne in few-flowered downy 
umbels. 
Calyx —Campanulate, five-lobed, lobes triangular, valvate in bud. 
Disk lining the calyx tube. 
Corolla.—Petals five, inserted on the disk, alternate with the 
calyx-lobes, minute, ovate, notched at apex, involute around the 
stamens in bud. 
Stamens.—Five, opposite the petals, inserted on the disk; fila- 
ments short; anthers in pairs, introrse, two-celled, cells opening 
longitudinally ; rudimentary in pistillate flower. 
Pistil.—Ovary superior, free, ovoid, two to four-celled ; rudimen- 
tary in staminate flower; style long; stigma three-lobed ; ovules 
one in each cell. 
Fruit—Drupaceous, globose, black, one-third of an inch in di- 
ameter, resting on the base of the calyx; flesh thin, sweet; nutlets 
two to four. 
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