86 WEEDS AXD USEFUL PLAOTS. 



like drape containing 2-4 separate, cartilaginous seed-like nutlets 

 which are grooved on the back, as is the contained seed. Shrubs or 

 small trees with loosely pinnatelj-veined leaves and axillary clusters of 

 greenish polygamous or dioecious powers-. 



1. E. cathar'ticus, L. Erect ; branches thorny at the summit ; leaves 

 ovate, minutely serrate ; flowers with the parts in fours ; fruit nearly 

 spherical, 4-seeded. 

 Cathartic Rhamxus. Buckthorn. 



Shrub or low tree with greyish bark. BrancMets ending in sharp points, being stiff 

 leafy thorns. Leaves 1-2 inches long, with a short abrupt acumination, smooth above, 

 often somewhat hairy on the 7-9 prominent veins beneath. Fertile flowers with abortive 

 stamens. Sterile floivers with an abortive ovary. Fruit black, nause'ous and cathartic. 



Cultivated and spontaneous. Fl. May. J'r.'October. 



Obs. This shrub is a native of Europe and has become quite natural- 

 ized in some places. The berries are a violent cathartic and were for- 

 merly much used, in the form of syrup, in domestic practice. Before 

 they are fully ripe and treated with alum, the berries furnish the water- 

 color known as sap-green. The chief use of the plant is to form hedges, 

 a purpose for which it is well suited, being quite hardy and bearing 

 severe pruning : moreover it puts out its foliage early in the season and 

 retains it until late. It is propagated by sowing the seeds, fresh from 

 the tree in the fall ; planted in this way they vegetate in the following 

 spring. ^ 



Order XXI. CELASTRA'CE^. (Staff-tree Family.) 



Shruis, rarely trees, with alternate or opposite simple leaves, minute fugacious stipules and 

 small regular ^/Zou-er5 with the parts in fours or fives and imbricated in the bud. Stamens 

 as man}- as the petals and alternate with them, inserted under the flat disk that lines the 

 bottom of the calyx. Ovary 2-5-celled. with one or few (erect or pendulous) ovules in 

 each cell. Fruit 2 - 5-celled, free from the calyx. Seeds ariUed ; eTnbryo large in a fleshy 

 albumen. 



1. OELAS'TRUS, L. Staff-tree. 



[A name borrowed from the ancient Greek writers.] 



PoIygamo-dicEcious. Sepals 5, connected at base. Petals and stamens 5, 

 inserted on the margin of the cup-shaped disk. Fruit a globose 3-celled, 

 3-valved capsule, opening loculicidally. Seeds 1 - 2 in each cell, erect, 

 enveloped in a scarlet aril. Leaves alternate ; flowers small and 

 greenish. 



1. C. scan 'dens, L. Stem woody, twining, unarmed ; leaves ovate- 

 oblong, finely toothed, pointed. 



Climbing- Celastrus. Wax-work. Climbing Bitter-sweet. 



stem 10-15 feet long. Leaves 2-4 inches long, on petioles about % of an inch in length. 

 Flowers yellowish-green, in small racemes terminating the short branches. Fruit about 

 the size of large peas, orange color when mature, opening at length and exposing the 

 eeeds enveloped in their scarlet aril. 



Common in thickets and along streams. FI. June. Fr. Oct. 



