90 
WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
The Spindle is indigenous throughout our islands, but cannot 
be said to be generally common ; it is rarer in Scotland and 
Ireland than in England. 
Among the exotic species cultivated in our parks and gardens 
are the handsome variegated forms of the Evergreen Spindle 
{Euo?iymtis japonicus) of China and Japan, and the Broad- 
leaved Spindle {E. latifolius) from Europe. 
The Buckthorns {Rhatnnus). 
Our two native species of Buckthorn are shrubs of from five 
to ten feet in height. In this one respect they agree ; in almost 
all others they differ. Both are Buckthorns in name, but the 
Breaking Buckthorn {Rhamnus frangula) is quite unarmed, 
whilst many of the branchlets of the Purging Buckthorn 
(^Rhaimms catharticus) are hardened into spines. 
The Purging Buckthorn is distinguished by its stiff habit, and 
by some of the leaves being gathered into bundles at the ends 
of the shoots. The leaves are egg-shaped, with toothed edges, 
and of a yellowish-green tint, with short leaf-stalks. The 
yellowish-green flowers are very small, and will be found both 
singly and in clusters from the leaf-axils. There are a four- 
cleft calyx, four petals, four stamens, or four stigmas, for the 
sexes are usually on separate plants. The fruit is black, round, 
and about a quarter of an inch across, containing four stones. 
These so-called “berries” are ripe in September. Formerly 
they were much used as a purging medicine, but of so violent a 
character that their use has come to be discouraged, and the 
safer syrup of Buckthorn is prescribed instead. The juice of 
these berries is the raw material from which the artist’s sap- 
green is prepared. It may be found in woods, thick hedgerows, 
and bushy places on commons southward of Westmoreland, 
showing a decided preference for chalky soils. In Ireland it 
only occurs rarely. 
