22 VITIS INDIVISA. ENTIRE-LEAVED IVY-GRAPE. 



fruit of the species to suggest any close relationship to the 

 grape-vine, and the earlier botanists, therefore, classed it in 

 another arenus, called Cissiis. This 2:enus, however, has been 

 abolished by some authors, but the name Cissus is still retained 

 by them, as the appellation of that section of Vitis to which our 

 plant belongs. Cissus is from a Greek word, signifying ivy, and 

 following the lead of the botanists, we may therefore give the 

 name of " Ivy-Grapes " to all the species which are united in 

 the same section with Vi'^is indivisa. 



Under the Linnaean system, when the number of stamens 

 decided the class, the species of the section Cissus were placed 

 in the fourth class, Tctrandria, because the blossoms generally 

 have only four stamens, while those which belong to the other 

 section, known as Vitis proper, went into the class Pentandria, 

 as having five stamens. This wide separation of such closely 

 allied plants shows the arbitrary nature of the so-called sexual 

 system. At present, the number of stamens is regarded as of 

 little moment in systematic classification in those cases in which 

 all other characters exhibit a close relationship. The chief 

 mark of distinction between the present sections of Vitis is 

 derived from the petals. In Vitis proper the petals are united 

 at the apex, and the whole corolla is pushed off in one piece 

 by the swelling ovaries, as the flowers fade. In Cissus, the 

 petals are not united, and expand in flowering, so that they fall 

 separately. There is also more of a tendency in the inflorescence 

 of the species belonging to Cissus to assume a divaricate or 

 forking character, while in Vitis proper, comprising the true 

 grapes, the flowers are arranged in a sort of racemose panicle, 

 or bunch. 



Vitis indivisa takes its specific name from the fact that its 

 leaves are entire, having only coarse, sharp teeth along their 

 edges, while other American species have lobed, or variously 

 divided leaves. We may, therefore, with propriety call our spe- 

 cies the " Entire-Leaved Ivy-Grape." It is a very remarkable fact 

 that in Asia there is a species known as V. heterophylla, which, 



