Genus 20. RHÁMNUS.
Shrubs or small trees with deciduous (rarely evergreen), usually alternate (rarely opposite), pinnately veined leaves. Flowers small, 4-parted, inconspicuous, in clusters in the axils of the leaves. Fruit berry-like, with 2 to 4 seed-like nuts.
| * Branches terminating in thorns | 1. | |
| * Plant without thorns. (A.) | ||
| A. Leaves deciduous | 2. | |
| A. Leaves evergreen | 3. | |
R. cathártica.
1. Rhámnus cathártica, L. (Common Buckthorn.) Leaves ovate, minutely serrate, alternate or many of them opposite; branchlets terminating in thorns. Flowers greenish. Fruit globular, 1/3 in. in diameter, black with a green juice, and 3 or 4 seeds; ripe in September. A shrub or small tree, 10 to 15 ft. high, from Europe; cultivated for hedges, and found wild in a few places, where it forms a small tree.
R. Caroliniàna.
2. Rhámnus Caroliniàna, Walt. (Carolina Buckthorn.) Leaves 3 to 5 in. long, alternate, oblong, wavy and obscurely serrulate, nearly smooth, on slender pubescent petioles. Flowers greenish, 5-parted, solitary or in umbellate clusters in the axils. Fruit berry-like, globular, the size of peas, 3-seeded, black when ripe in September. A thornless shrub or small tree, 5 to 20 ft. high. New Jersey, south and west. Usually a shrub except in the Southern States.
