MAPLE FAMILY III 



drupaceous, with 2 — 4 1 -seeded stones. (Name from the Greek 

 rhatnnos, a branch.) 



1. R.cathdrticus (Common Buckthorn). — A stiff, much-branched 

 shrub, 5 — 10 feet high ; branches opposite, terminating in spines ; 

 leaves ovate serrate ; flowers in crowded axillary cymes, yellowish- 

 green, tetramerous, dioecious ; style 4-cleft ; fruit with 4 stones, 

 black, powerfully cathartic. These, if gathered before they are 

 ripe, yield a yellow dye ; when ripe they form, if mixed with lime- 

 water and gum-arabic, the pigment known as Sap- or Bladder- 

 green. — Woods, chiefly on chalk. — Fl. May — July. 



2. R. Frdngula (Alder Buckthorn, Black or Berry-bearing Alder). 

 — A shrub, 6 — 10 feet high, with rather slender, smooth, dark, 

 spineless branches not opposite one another ; obovate, entire, deep 

 green leaves ; greenish-white flowers ; style simple ; fruit with 2 

 stones. Used under the name Dogwood for gunpowder charcoal. 

 — Woods ; not uncommon. — Fl. May, June. 



Ord. XXIV. AcERfNE^E. — The Maple Family 



Strictly speaking, a tribe in the large Order Sapinddcea, to 

 another division of which the Soap-berry, the Horse-Chestnut, and 

 the Litchi belong. The Maple Tribe are trees with opposite, 

 stalked, deciduous leaves palmately-veined ; racemose, polysymme- 

 tric flowers, which are often polygamous, the lower ones being 

 usually staminate and the upper perfect ; calyx divided into 5 parts 

 (occasionally 4 — 12), imbricate, deciduous ; petals of the same 

 number, imbricate or absent ; stamens usually 8, inserted on a 

 ring-shaped disk beneath the ovary ; ovary laterally compressed 

 2- (rarely 3 — 4) lobed and chambered ; style 2-lobed ; fruit a 

 2-winged, 2 — 4-seeded samara. North America is rich in Maples, 

 their vividly tinted leaves giving a great charm to autumn wood- 

 lands. Several species, especially Acer sacchartnum, abound in 

 sweet sap, from which maple sugar is manufactured; and the 

 timber of some species is valuable. Bird's-eye Maple is a knotty 

 variety of A. saccharinum ; the white wood of the Sycamore (A. 

 PseMopldtanus) is largely used in Scotland, under the misleading 

 name of Plane, in turnery, for bread-platters, butter-dishes, and 

 moulds, &c. ; and knarled specimens of the Common Maple {A. 

 campestre) were formerly employed in making the rare and beau- 

 tiful " mazer " bowls. 



1. Acer (Maple). — Leaves simple, lobed; sepals and petals 5 

 each ; carpels 2, each with a long wing. (Name the Latin acer t 

 which it is suggested may have been connected with the Keltic ac % 



