Descriptive Flora 



131 



t ion when its leaves were brewed for tea. C. ovatus would have 

 been just as good if it had grown where the people then lived. 

 Roots yield a brown dye. March to May. Found on the lime- 

 stone hills north and west of San Antonio. 



Colubrina texensis A. Gray. 



Shrub, 3 to 6 feet high, with pale grey, zigzag, divergent 

 branches and clusters of small, simple leaves and inconspicuous 

 greenish-yellow flowers at intervals along the many branches. 

 Leaves simple, alternate or clustered. Blades ovate to elliptic, 

 1 inch or less long. Fruit hard, the size of large peas, when dry 

 separating into 3 nutlets. Prefers poor, dry soil. Very common. 

 March to April. 



Zizipiius obtusifolia (Hook.) A. Gray. Lotebush. 



Texas Buckthorn. 



A rigid, much branched, thorny shrub with the younger 

 branches greenish gray, streaked lengthwise, and ending in a 

 long thorn. Leaves ovate to oblong, y 2 to l 1 /^" long, entire or 

 shallowly toothed. Flowers very small, flat, 5-pointed, greenish, 

 in small, inconspicuous clusters. Fruit black, mealy, stony, the 

 size of very large peas. February to September. In dry soil. 

 Common. The fruit may be eaten but is not palatable. 



Rhamnus mroliniana Walt. Indian Cherry. Yellow Wood. 



Yellow Buckthorn. 



Shrub or small tree, with conspicuously feather-veined 

 leaves, 2 to 4 inches long, and few-flowered clusters of small 

 whitish or greenish flowers in the axils of the upper leaves. 

 Leaves simple, alternate. Blades firm, the texture of a cherry 

 leaf, oblong or elliptic, shiny above, downy beneath, minutely 

 and shallowly saw-toothed. Leaf-stalks short. Petals 5, tri- 

 angular-ovate, about 1/3 as long as the sepals. Stamens 5. Fruits 

 globular, black, 3-seeded, about %" across. April and May. 

 Wooded river bottoms and hillsides. 



