248 AMPELIDEZ (Kunth.) [ Vites. 
Has. Primitive woods in George, Uitenhage, Albany, and Caffraria, Thunberg, 
E. §& Z./ &e. Aug. (Herb. T.C.D., Lehm., Sond.) 
This is the Essenhout or Essenboom of the Colonists. Wood hard and white. 
Branches and branchlets nodose after the leaves have fallen, glabrous. Leaves 
crowded at the ends of the branches, alternate, petiolate, the petiole, including the 
channelled rachis, 4-8 inches long. Leaflets 2~3 inches long, #-1 inch wide, some 
smaller, all unequally narrowed at base, paler underneath. Panicles 1-3 inches 
long, loose, the common peduncles 1-2 inches long, compressed, smooth ; pedicels 
cernuous, 1-2 lines long. Calyx 1 line long, with roundish, obtuse segments. Pe- 
tals tomentose at both sides. Berry (when dry) blueish-black, as large as a small 
cherry, 1-2 seeded ; seeds oblong, sub-compressed. 
OrpeR XXX. AMPELIDEA, Kunth. 
(By W. H. Harvey.) 
(Vites, Juss. Gen, 267, Viniferee, Juss. Mem. Mus. 3. 444. Ampe- 
lide, Kunth, in Humb, Nov. Gen. 5. 223. DC. Prod. :. p.627. Endl. 
Gen. No. clxiv. Vitacew, Lindl. Veg. King. No. clx.) 
Flowers usually perfect, regular, minute. Calyx small, cup-shaped. 
Petals 4—5, separate or connate, concave, with valvate estivation. Sta- 
mens as many as the petals and opposite them ; filaments short; an- 
thers introrse, 2-celled. Ovary surrounded by a cuplike, fleshy disc, 
2-celled (rarely 3—6-celled) ; ovules in pairs or solitary, ascending or 
erect. Style simple ; stigma capitate. Berry 2-6-celled, pulpy ; seeds 
bony, with much hard albumen, and a small basal embryo. 
Shrubs, erect or more commonly trailing, or climbing by tendrils formed from 
abortive peduncles. Branches tumid at the nodes, often succulent. Lower leaves 
opposite, upper alternate, petiolate, rarely simple, erally palmately compound, 
sometimes pedate or pinnate. Peduncles opposite the leaves, simple or branched ; 
pedicels umbellulate or cymose. 
Natives of tropical and sub-tropical countries of both hemispheres. The grape- 
vine ( Vitis vinifera), the type of this Order, now cultivated throughout the warmer 
temperate zones, is originally from the Caucasian region, whence it has accom- 
panied civilized mankind in all their wanderings. None of the wild vines of South 
Africa have esculent fruit. [Zeea crispa, Lin., a reputed Cape species, is here 
omitted, as there is no valid evidence to show that it exists within the colony. It 
probably was introduced to British gardens from “ Cape Coast,” a locality which 
may have been confounded with “ the Cape,”] 
_-————Ss ABLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GENERA. 
2 par 3 Vitis.—Petals connate into a hood. Stigma sessile. 
a Cissus.— Petals distinct. Style cylindrical, stigma sub-capitate. 
— I. VITIS, L. 
Calye short, ‘cup-shaped, obsoletel 
toate che ee ely 4-5-toothed. Petals 5, cohering 
: oan edges into a cap-like (calypiriform) body, separating at_ base, 
Pet nae te 
