THE DICOTYLEDONS 557 
plants. Stems rarely short, more usually elongate, feeble, 
rather brittle, climbing by tendrils which represent modified 
inflorescence shoots. Leaves alternate, simple to lobed (either 
pinnately or more often palmately) to compound-pinnate or 
palmate. Perfect graded series of lanceolate leaves with pinnate 
veining to palmate veining; from pinnately veined to compound- 
pinnate; from palmately veined to compound-palmate. Stipules 
greenish to membranous or none. Flowers in racemes of com- 
pressed cymes, hermaphrodite or diclinous, nearly always small, 
clustered, green to greenish-yellow or greenish-white, rarely 
otherwise; sepals five, rarely four, small to minute (mere rim 
of receptacle) more or less persistent. Petals five, deciduous to 
caducous, typically distinct (in Vitis), united by their tips into 
calyptroform corolla, so in June, as Grape Vine flowers expand, 
corolla splits at base into five lobes that separate below, being 
attached at tips, while whole becomes tumbled off by lengthen- 
ing stamens. Pistil bicarpellate. Ovary two-celled, superior 
or at most sub-inferior. Ovules two to one, erect. Style short, 
often more or less thickened, with terminal, capitate, slightly 
two-lobed stigmas. Stamens equal to petals or sepals and 
opposite petals. Receptacle internal to stamens, often expanded 
into nectariferous girdle or, in Vitis, into receptacular knobs 
alternating with stamens. Fruit a berry rarely six- to three- 
celled, typically two-celled and with two to one seeds in each 
cavity. Seeds like ovules, erect with bony testa. Embryo 
small, imbedded at base of cartilaginous albumen. 
Brandy or Spiritus Vini Vitis is an alcoholic liquid obtained by the distillation 
of the fermented juice of sound, ripe grapes and containing from 48 to 54 per cent. 
of ethyl alcohol. 
OrpDER MALVALES 
STERCULIACEZ OR CoLa Famity.—Rarely herbs, usually 
shrubs or tall, often heavy trees with soft wood and broad annual 
rings. The cambium, in developing bast, produces one, two, 
three, four, or five alternating layers of hard and soft bast which 
in some species of this as well as the Tiliacee or Linden family 
form long finger-like processes pushing out into the cortex. 
Leaves alternate, sometimes simple and pinnately-veined or 
passing to palmately-veined or palmately-compound. Flowers 
