Tas. 8558. 
VITIS THUNBERGII. 
China and Japan. 
AMPELIDACEAE. Tribe VITOIDEAE. 
Vitis, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 387, partim ; Planch. in 
DC. Monogr, vol. v. pars 2, p. 821, emend. 
Vitis Thunbergii, Sich. & Zucc. Fl. Jap. Fam. Nat. sect. 1, p. 90; Planch. 
in DC. Monogr. vol. v. pars 2, p. 833; affinis V. Labruscae, Linn., a qua 
nodis tertiis cirrhis (vel inflorescentiis) carentibus, necnon fructibus 
minoribus recedit. 
Frutex scandens. Rami subangulati, exsiccando costati. Folia alterna, duo 
sequentia cirrho (vel inflorescentia) se opponentia, tertium ramulum axil- 
larem suffulciens, ultra medium palmatifida, 10-15 cm. diametro, supra 
glabra nervis et venulis impressis, subtus tomentosa vel pubescentia, 
nervis prominentibus lobis 3-5 basi angustatis grosse serratis, terminali 
rhomboideo-elliptico ; petioli 3-5 cm. longi. Thyrst oppositifolii, 
ramo infimo in cirrhum mutato. Flores in apicibus ramulorum rhachis 
subfasciculati, parvi, virides. Calyx breviter cupularis, repando-dentatus. 
Corolla in alabastro depresso-truncata; petala 5, valvata, in calyptram 
deciduam cohaerentia. Stamina 5, petalis opposita ; antherae introrsae. 
Glandulae interstaminales 5, parva, hypogyna. Ovarvwm subglobosum, 
biloculare ; stylus brevis, stigmate leviter bifido ; ovula pro loculo 2, erecta. 
Baccae ovoideae vel ellipsoideae, circiter 1 em. longae, purpure )-nigrae. 
Semina 1-8.—Vitis Labrusca, Franch. et Savat. Enum. Pl. Jap. vol. i. 
p. 83: Hemsl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. vol. xxiii. p. 184; non Linn.— 
T. A. Spracug. 
- The Vine which is the subject of our notice is a native 
of Eastern Asia, extending from Corea and China to 
Japan and Formosa. In this area it is the species which 
represents the North American Vitis Labrusca, Linn., 
to which it is very closely allied, and in which it has 
actually been included by a botanist so distinguished as the 
late Mr. Franchet. In the Asiatic V. Tiunbergu, however, 
the fruits are so much smaller that it can hardly be con- 
fused with its American congener, while the observant 
owing to the circumstance that in the American. Fox- 
Grape a tendril, or in the absence of a tendril, its homo- 
logue, an inflorescence, is to be met with opposite each 
leaf, whereas in the Japanese plant, while there 1s a 
tendril or an inflorescence opposite two successive leaves, 
none will be found opposite the third leaf. As a climber 
whose foliage dies off at the close of the season im rich 
JUNE, 1914. 
