142 MEXISPERMACEAE. 



3. Annona reticulata L. Sp. PL 537. 1753. 



A small tree, sometimes S m. high, usually smaller, the young twigs puberu- 

 lent. Leaves oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or narrowly lanceolate, chartaceous, 

 8-15 cm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, puberulent when young, glabrous when old, 

 acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, the rather stout petioles 2 cm. 

 long or less; peduncles longer than the petioles; flowers greenish, about 2 cm. 

 long; sepals triangular-ovate, 2-3 mm. long; outer petals narrowly oblong, 

 puberulent; fruit globose, 8-12 cm. in diameter, yellowish brown, glabrous, 

 coarsely reticulated, the pulp yellowish, the oblong, brown seeds shining. 



Sink-holes, Great Bahama at Eight Mile Rocks : West Indies. Widely culti- 

 vated. CUSTAED APPLE. Catesby, 2 : pi. 86. 



Family 4. MENISPERMACEAE DC. 

 MOONSEED FAMILY. 



Vines, shrubs or trees, with alternate leaves, no stipules, and small 

 dioecious panicled racemose or cymose flowers. Sepals 412, or fewer. 

 Petals 6, imbricated in 2 rows, sometimes fewer, or none. Stamens about 

 the same number as the petals or fewer. Carpels 3-co (generally 6), 1- 

 ovuled, separate; styles commonly recurved. Fruit drupaceous. Embryo 

 long, curved. About 55 genera and 150 species, mainly of tropical dis- 

 tribution, a few extending into the temperate zones. 



1. CISSAMPELOS L. Sp. PI. 1031. 1753. 



Slender vines, often high-climbing, the leaves broad, mostly entire and 

 cordate, palmately veined, the staminate flowers cymose-paniculate, the pistil- 

 late clusters racemose, bracted. Staminate flowers with 4 sepals, the petals 

 united below into a cup, the 2-4 anthers sessile on the peltate top of the 

 stamen-column. Pistillate flowers with a rudimentary scale-like perianth of 1 

 sepal and 1 petal and a single carpel with a 3-cleft or 3-toothed style. Drupe 

 subglobose, convex; stone compressed, tubercled on the back, concave on both 

 sides. [Greek, ivy-grape.] Perhaps 25 species, of tropical America and trop- 

 ical and southern Africa. Type species: dssampelos Pareira L. 



1. Cissampelos tomentosa DC. Syst. 1: 535. 1818. 



Climbing, often 5 m. long or longer, the young branches, petioles, inflor- 

 escence and under leaf-surfaces densely tomentose. Leaves suborbicular, 2-10 

 cm. broad, cordate or truncate at the base, rot peltate, the petioles 1-7 cm. 

 long; racemes of pistillate flowers 5-8 cm. long, the bracts orbicular, cordate 

 or subcordate, 515 mm. broad, the pedicels several at each bract, densely 

 tomentose, about 2 mm. long, the sepals about 1 mm. long ; panicles of stami- 

 nate flowers 8 cm. long or less, the flowers usually very numerous, about 1 mm. 

 broad, on filiform short pedicels. 



Old fields and coppices. Andros, near N'icol's Town : Cuba : Jamaica ; Mexico 

 and Central America. VELVETY CISSAMPELOS. 



