The British Cyclopaedia: Buckthorn

The British Cyclopaedia
of the arts, sciences, history, geography, literature, natural history and biography; copiously illustrated by engravings on wood and steel by eminent artists.
Edited by Charles F. Partington, professor of mechanical philosphy, author of various works on natural and experimental philosophy, &c., assisted by authors of eminence in the various departments of science.
Complete in ten volumes.
Volume VI.
Natural history.
ABA to CET.
London: WM. S. Orr and Co., Amen Corner, Paternoster Row.
MDCCCXXXVIII.Buckthorn is the Rhamnus of Linnaeus, a genus comprising thirty species of ornamental shrubs, chiefly evergreen, They are Pentandrious, and give name to a natural order, namely, Rhamneae. The R. alaternus has already been noticed as a common and favourite shrubbery plant, of which there are nine varieties. Many of the others are found wild on the continent, and two are indigenous to England, viz. R. catharticus, and R. frangula. The berries of the first are sold as French berries, used to stain paper and maps; the juice mixed with alum makes sap-green; but if the berries be gathered late in the autumn the juice is purple; the bark dyes a fine yellow. The R. lycioides furnishes the wood of which the Moguls make their images, on account of its hardness and orange-red colour. R. saratilis resem bles catharticus. The berries are used to dye the morocco leather yellow. The leaves of the Rhamnus Teezans are used as tea by the poor in China. R. frangula, found in British woods, have dark purple berries, which are purgative. Gathered before they are ripe, they dye wool green and yellow; when ripe, blue-grey, blue, and green. The bark dyes yellow, and with preparations of iron, black. The berries of this sort, and also those of the cornus, are sometimes sold for those of the buckthorn; but they are easily distinguished, the true buckthorn having four seeds, the frangula two, and the cornus one.