Dicotyledons with Polypctalo2is Flowers . 
27 
Natural Order 
RHAMNACE2E. Tab. 22. 
D iagnosis.— Shrubs or trees, usually with alternate leaves. Flowers 
small, regular. Stamens perigynous, definite, opposite to the petals. Ovary 
free or immersed in the disk, 3-4-celled. 
Distribution. —Chiefly tropical or sub-tropical, with a few outlying genera both in the North and 
South Temperate zones, A few peculiar almost leafless genera are confined to Western and Extra- 
tropical South America. 
One British Genus; Species 2. 
Calyx small, with 4-5 short teeth. 
Petals and Stamens as many as calyx-lobes, or petals wanting ; the stamens always alternate with the calyx- 
lobes. 
Disk various, lining the calyx-tube in Buckthorn (. Rhamnus ). 
Fruit various; drupaceous with 2-4 one-seeded pyrenes inJBuckthorn. 
Seeds albuminous. 
USES,. &c.—The fruit of Common Buckthorn (R. ccotharticus) and allied species affords a yellow and green 
dye, and is the source from which the pigment “sap-green” is prepared. Jujubes are the edible drupes of species o 
Zizyphus cultivated in South Europe and the East. In Eastern Asia the fleshy peduncles of Hovema duLcis are an 
esteemed dessert. The charcoal principally used in England in the manufacture of gunpowder is prepared from the 
fine-grained wood of Alder Buckthorn ( Rliamnns Frangula). Several species^ of the North American genus 
Ceanothus and the South European Alaternus ( Rhamnus Alaternus) are frequent in shrubberies. 
