THE BUCKTHORNS. 
Rham'nus cathar’ticus L. and R. Frangula L. 
Tue Family Rham'new, which is nota large one, 
belongs mainly to the Warmer Temperate Zone, and 
consists chiefly ot shrubs or small trees. Not a 
few of its members have their branches, like those 
of our common Buckthorn, terminated in spines, to 
which, of course, our species owe the second syllable 
of their names. 
The leaves in all the Family are simple in outline 
and stalked, and there are two minute stipules at the 
base of each leaf-stalk. 
The flowers are invariably small and generally 
green or yellow, and would be individually insigni- 
ficant; but they are often massed together and 
contain honey, so that, unlike those of the true forest 
trees, they have their pollen carried by bees and other 
insects, and not by the wind. As in the Spindle-tree 
and its allies, there is a tendency in these flowers for 
the parts in each whorl to be reduced from the 
typical five to four, so that there are four sepals, four 
petals, four stamens, and often four chambers to the 
fruit; and the green sepals are commonly larger than 
the petals between them; but one of the main tech- 
nical distinctions between the two Orders is that, 
whilst the sepals of the Spindle-tree overlap, those of 
the Buckthorn Family touch in the bud without 
doing so, or are, as it is termed, “valvate.” The 
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