466 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 



PLANTS WITH MANY PETALS, WHICH GROW, TOGETHER WITH THE STA- 

 MENS, ABOUT OR UPON A DISK SURROUNDING THE SEED-VESSEL. 



FAMILY XXX. THE VINE FAMILY. VITA y CEJE. Jcssieu. 



The Vines are trailing or climbing shrubs, with swollen, sepa- 

 rable joints, and alternate leaves with stipules. On the side of 

 the stem opposite the leaves, spring the footstalks which bear 

 the clusters of flowers. When the flowers are abortive, the 

 footstalk is changed into a tendril ; and tendrils opposite the 

 leaves are peculiar to this family. The flowers are small, 

 greenish, and commonly perfect; calyx minute, nearly entire, 

 5-toothed; petals 5, distinct, caducous; stamens as many as 

 the petals and opposite them, inserted on the surface of the 

 disk ; ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect ovules side by side in each 

 cell; style short or wanting; stigma simple. Fruit a round, 

 pulpy berry, with 1 or more cells and 1 or more seeds. Seeds 

 erect, with a bony shell. Embryo straight, short ; cotyledons 

 flat, lanceolate ; radicle inferior. — (Flore Franpaise, V, 857.) 

 Plants of this family have acid properties and yield sugar. 

 They are found in the woods of the milder and hotter parts of 

 both hemispheres. There are two genera in this State : 1, 

 the Grape Vine, Vitis, with entire leaves ; and 2, the Virginian 

 Creeper, Ampelopsls, with leaves divided into five parts. 



XXX. 1. THE GRAPE VINE. VITIS. L. 



This is a small genus, thus characterized : Calyx nearly en- 

 tire ; petals 5, commonly united at the apex, but distinct at 

 base and falling off like a cap; stamens 5; style short, coni- 

 cal, stigma dilated. Peduncles sometimes changed into ten- 

 drils. Flowers, in the North American species, perfect or con- 

 taining only stamens, or only pistils, on the same or different 

 plants. 



