No. 50. HUiaUIiITS. 247 



teeth; surface very rough with three raain nerves and 



many veuis 



I 



Flowers numerous and greenish. The staniinate 

 on dijSerent individuals, forming axillary panicles, 

 with two or four bracts, reflexed, opposite, petiolate, 

 oval: each flower peduncled. Perigone caliciform, 

 ' with five oblong obtuse concave and spreading sepals : 

 five stamina, filaments short, anthers oblong, opening 

 by Jvvo terminal pores. Pistilate flowers forming 

 oval, opposite, axillary, drooping and peduncled 

 strobiles or cones. Scales imbricate, oval, acute, 

 tubular at the base, each covering two sessile flowers. 

 Perigone (Corolla of Linnaeus) shorter than the 

 scales, lateral, oval obtuse, infolding the pistil by the 

 edges. Germen rounded, compressed, two short 

 styles, two long subulate and downy stigmas. Each 

 flower produces a single round seed. 



Locality — Native of Europe and America, and 

 cultivated also in both continents. Schoepf found it 

 wild in Virginia, Nultal on the Missouri, and I have 

 seen it spontaneous from New York to Kentucky in 

 groves, thickets, coppices and banks of streams. 



HISTORY — This vine is ornamental and useful. 

 It is extensively cultivated wherever malt liquors are 

 used, and forms a profitable branch of agriculture. 

 The fertile plants alone are raised, since the medical 

 and economical parts are the strobiles of the seeds. 

 The young shoots, when emerging from the ground, 

 are however eaten like Asparagus in Italy and Ger- 

 many. The fibres of the vine are also made into 

 coarse cloth in Sweden and England. The blossoms 



