XL. THE MAGNOLIA FAMILY. 525 



MOONSEED. MENISPERMUM. L. 



Climbing shrubs of North America and Central Asia, with 

 alternate, peltate, or heart-shaped, smooth, entire leaves, and 

 small, yellowish flowers in axillary or supra-axillary racemes. 

 The male flowers have 4 to 12 sepals in two to four rows, as 

 many petals or none, and 10 to 30 distinct stamens with 4-lobed 

 anthers ; the female flowers, somewhat larger, 4 to 6 sepals in 

 two rows, as many petals, and 2 to 4, 1-celled ovaries. The 

 drupes are solitary, or in twos or fours. 



Canada Moonseed. M. Canad&nse. L. 



A twining plant, with a smooth, woody stem, eight to twelve 

 feet long, climbing over shrubs, on the banks of rivers and in 

 thickets. The leaves are peltate or shield-like, three or four 

 inches long, and rather broader, with 3 to 5 angular lobes, with 

 the leaf-stem, which is one or two inches long, inserted near the 

 base, bright green above, pale and very strongly nerved beneath. 

 The flowers are greenish-yellow, in small racemes, which come 

 out a little above the axil of a leaf. The fruit is a drupe, nearly 

 black when mature, and containing a lunate nut. 



FAMILY XL. THE MAGNOLIA FAMILY. MAGNOLWCEJE. 



JUSSIEU. 



This family comprehends about fifty species of trees and shrubs, 

 among which are many of the most magnificent of the vegetable 

 kingdom. They abound in tropical Asia and the warmer parts 

 of North America. This State is their most northern limit. 

 Advancing southward, they become more numerous, and reach 

 their highest perfection in the Southern and Southwestern States. 

 A few are found in the West Indies and in South America, and 

 in Japan, China, New Zealand and New Holland. Their leaves 

 are large and showy, alternate, simple, coriaceous, mostly very 

 entire, dotted most frequently with pellucid dots, and, before 



