glabrous, spiny; branches angular; leaves tufted, ovate or obovate-oblong, tapering at base, obtuse or emarginate, serrulato-dentate or crenulate, veiny on both sides; panicles axillary, corymbose, pedunculate, shorter or longer than the leaf; capsules sub-globose, trigonous, 3-celled, 3–2 seeded. A greyish shrub, several feet high. Spines naked or leafy, rarely floriferous, patent. Twigs often unarmed. Leaves unequal, obtuse or excised, rarely acute, on short petioles. Flowers small, white, 5-fid. Petals oblong, much longer than the calyx, equalling the stamens. Capsules the size of a small pea, rarely larger. Var. e. (from Camtous river) may be a species; but we have seen but a single, unarmed twig of it. C. multiflorus, Lam. Enc. Meth. 1. 661. seems to be a var. of C. buxifolius; it does not exist in Herb. Lamk.
