474. WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
stalks coming from the axil of the lower leaves, or beneath 
them. ‘They are large and globose, and contain 4 prismatic, 
cartilaginous seeds or nuts. 
The fruit of the buckthorn was formerly employed in medicine 
as a purgative, but is too violent and drastic to be safely used, 
and is now chiefly confined to veterinary practice, to which it 
is well adapted. ‘The saffron-colored juice of the unripe berries, 
called French berries by dyers, is used as a paint and a dye. 
Sap green is made of the inspissated juice of the ripe berries, 
with alum and gum Arabic. If gathered very late they yield a 
purple instead of a green color. The bark furnishes a beautiful 
yellow dye; or, dryed, it colors brown. ‘The wood of the roots 
is yellowish-brown, with a satiny lustre, and very compact, and 
may be employed by the turner. Sheep and goats are fond of 
the leaves, but cattle refuse them. 
The buckthorn is well suited to form hedges, either by itself 
or still better in conjunction with the thorn. It bears pruning, 
srows rapidly, is tough, and not liable to the attacks of in- 
sects, and is hardy, and not difficult as to soil. It puts forth its 
leaves early in the spring and retains them late in the fall; and 
its bunches of rich black berries are very showy in the autumn. 
It may be propagated by seed, which comes up the first season, 
or by suckers or layers. 
The seed should be sown in the fall, when fresh from the 
tree. It vegetates early next sprmg. The plants may remain 
in the seed-bed a year, and then be transferred to the nursery 
until they are eighteen inches or two feet high, when they may 
be planted in a single or double row, eight or nine inches apart, 
fora hedge. As soon as they begin to vegetate, they should be 
headed down to within six inches of the ground. This causes 
them to thicken at the bottom ;—an important point, whether 
utility or beauty is considered. 
Sp. 2. Tue Atper-Leavep Buckruorn. FR. alnifolius. L’Heritier. 
A stout, very leafy bush, three or four feet high, growing in 
clumps, in moist lands, with a dark colored stem and grayish 
branches. ‘The leaves are broad-oval, two or three inches long, 
