Rhamnaceæ

Rhamnaceæ (Buckthorns), a natural order of exogenous plants, consisting of trees or shrubs; often spiny; with simple, generally alternate leaves, and stipules minute or wanting. This order contains about 250 known species, natives of temperate and tropical countries, and very generally distributed over the globe. The prevailing principle in the buckthorns is a bitter extractive which is acrid or astringent, tonic and antifebrile. Some of them are used in dyeing (see BUCKTHORN, and FRENCH BERRIES), some in medicine (see RED ROOT), and the fruit of some is pleasant (see JUJUBE); whilst Hovenia dulcis, a native of China and Japan, is remarkable for the thickening of its flower-stalks after flowering, so as to form a succulent sweet red pulp, with a flavour resembling that of a pear. The lotus of the ancient Lotophagi, celebrated by Homer, is the fruit of Zizyphus lotus, a small shrub abundant in Spain, Sicily, Barbary, Tunis (see LOTUS). The wood of Rhamnus frangula yields a superior charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder.