RHAMNACEiE. 
51 
Tendrils none. Flowers in axillary cymes. Ovary superior. 
Leaves alternate. Fruit a drupe * Zizyphus. 
Leaves opposite. Fruit a drupe 1 . Scutia. 
Leaves alternate. Fruit a capsule 2. Colubrina. 
Tendrils spiral. Flowers in terminal racemes. Ovary 
inferior 3. Gouania. 
Tendrils none. Flowers in terminal clusters. Ovary inferior 4. Phylica. 
# Zizyphus Jujuba , Lara. ; DC. Prod. ii. 21, widely spread through 
the tropics of the Old World and extensively cultivated for its fruit, 
is plentifully established in Mauritius round Port Louis and in other 
parts of the island and in Rodriguez. It is a tree 15-30 feet high, 
with branches leaves beneath and outside of the flower densely 
matted with whitish pubescence, stipulary spines small hooked or 
straight often abortive, short-petioled rather oblique minutely toothed 
oblong or roundish obtuse simple tripli-nerved leaves, copious minute 
pentamerous flowers in sessile axillary cymes, and a yellow drupe as 
large as a cherry, with a bony endocarp containing 1-3 (usually 2) 
1-seeded cells. Z. rotnndata, DC. Prod. ii. 21, and Z. mauritiana , 
Lam. Ency. iii. 319, are Mauritian forms of the plant. Masson. 
1. SCUTIA, Brongn. 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx campanulate, with 5 lanceolate 
teeth, which fall off after flowering. Petals 5, oblong unguiculate. 
Disk filling the tube, with a free undulated border. Stamens 5, opposite 
the petals ; filaments subulate ; anthers round. Ovary free, immersed 
in the calyx-tube, 2-3-celled ; style short, simple ; stigmas 2-3. Fruit 
rather fleshy, containing 2-3 triquetrous pyrenes. — Glabrous spiny 
shrubs, with small coriaceous opposite leaves and small flowers in axillary 
cymes. Distrib. Round the world in the tropics, also Cape. Spe- 
cies 8. 
1. S. Commersoni, Brong. in Ann. Sc. Nat. x. 363. A climbing 
glabrous shrub, 6-10 feet high. Spines in the axils of leaves, hooked, 
often abortive. Leaves opposite, short-petioled, coriaceous, obtuse, 
1-2 inches long, finely penninerved, cuneate at the base. Flowers in 
copious sessile or short-peduncled axillary cymes. Calyx glabrous, 
X V in. deep ; teeth deciduous. Petals white, shorter than the calyx- 
lobes. Drupe the size of a pea, oblong, aromatic. S. indica, Brong. 
loc. cit. Rhamnus circumscissus, Linn . R. capensis, Thunb. 
Mauritius and Rodriguez, common in woods, annoying from its hooked spines. 
Also Cape, Bourbon, and Tropical Asia. Bambara. Bois Senti. 
2. COLUBRINA, Rich. 
Flowers polygamous. Calyx tube campanulate ; teeth 5, deltoid, 
caducous. Petals 5, minute, hooded, enclosing the 5 stamens. Disk 
filling up the calyx-tube. Ovary confluent with the disk, 3-celled; 
