48 
SNAKE-WOOD. 
Rhamnus ferrugineus. Nutt, in Torres' and Gras. Flora N. 
Am. 1 . p. 263. and Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad., vol. 7. p. 90. 
Jlrhor baccifera indica , Joins majoribus splendentibus flore 
pentapetalo. Comm. Hort. p. 475. tab. 90. 
A flowering specimen of this tree was collected at 
Key West, in East Florida, by Mr. Titian Peale. From 
this imperfect relic I conceived it to belong to a new 
species which I hence called the ferruginous Buck- 
thorn, but on comparing it more attentively with a fine 
specimen of Rhamnus colubrinus collected in St. Do- 
mingo by Poiteau, I felt satisfied of their identity. It is 
indigenous to the islands of St. Martin, the Bahamas, 
Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Cuba, where, on the high 
mountains, it becomes a tree of 20 feet in height; but 
on the borders of the sea, among the brushwood, it 
seldom attains a greater height than that of 6 or 7 feet. 
The branches spread out horizontally and are thickly 
covered with leaves. It is remarkable for the ferrugi- 
nous down spread over the petioles and young leaves, as 
well as upon the peduncles and calyx of the flowers. 
The bark is smooth and blackish, but the younger 
branches are grey and downy. The leaves are alter- 
nate, oval, somewhat acuminately and abruptly pointed, 
entire, smooth and shining above, tomentose beneath 
when young, afterwards only so on the nerves, 3 to 4 
inches long by about 2 inches wide; the petioles from 
a quarter to half an inch long. The flowers are small, 
disposed in short axillary corymbs, containing in each 
cluster about 7 to 10. The calyx is villous and ferru- 
ginous, 5-parted, the divisions ovate and somewhat 
acute, the petals, 5 in number, are narrow, linear- 
oblong, about the length of the divisions of the calyx, 
unguiculate, concave, and partly embracing the stamens, 
which are about the same length. Fleshy disk of the 
germ conspicuous, broadly 5-lobed. The style is simple, 
