48 MENISPERMACEiE. Menispermdm, 



§ 1. Fertile flowers without abortive stamens: mit forming a nearly com- 

 plete ring. 



1. M. Canadense (Linn.) : leaves peltate (with the petiole near the base), 

 somewhat glabrous, obtusely angled ; angles obtuse or acute ; racemes com- 

 pound ; sepals 4-7 ; petals 6-7 ; very small, somewhat fleshy ; stamens 15-19 ; 

 anthers innate, 4-lobed.— .'kT/c/i.r. / /. 2. p. 241 ; Pzirsh, fl. 2. p. 370 ; DC. 

 sysl. 2. p. 54:0 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 715. M. Virginicum, Linn.; Willd. sp. 4. 

 p. 824. 



Banks of rivers and in thickets, Canada ! to S. Carolina, and Arkansas ! 

 July. — Stem lierba;ceous or suflruticose at the base, 8-12 feet long, slender. 

 Leaves 3-4 inches long, rather broader than wide, with 3-5 angular lobes. 

 Flowers small, greenish-yellow ; the sterile ones in paniculate supra-axillary 

 racemes : pedicels about a hne long, bracteolate. Sepals commonly 4-5, obo- 

 vate-oblong. Petals much smaller than the sepals, orbicular, obtusely cuneate 

 at the base. Filaments scarcely thickened at the summit : anthers of 4 

 spherical lobes. Drupe stipitate, about one-third of an inch in diameter, nearly 

 black when mature, pruinose, curved so that the style and base are nearly in 

 contact ; pulp small in quantity. Nut much compressed, forming a nearly 

 complete ring. Seed terete, annular. Embryo linear, in the axis of a 

 fleshy albumen, and nearly of the same length. 



§ 2. Sepals 6 : petals none : sterile flowers with 12 stamens ; the anthers 

 adnate, parallel with the fllament : fertile flowers with 6 abortive sta- 

 mens : ovaries 3 : drupe solitary^ oval, the style nearly at the summit .- 

 nut concavo-convex, deeply excavated in front. — Calycocarpum, Nutt. 

 mss. 



2. M. Lyoni (Pursh) : leaves 3-5-lobed, not peltate ; the lobes acuminate 

 and sometimes crenulate ; petioles very long ; racemes somewhat compound. 

 —Pursh, fl. 2. p. 371 ; DC. prodr. 1. p. 103. 



Near New Orleans, Dr. Ingalls .' Arkansas, Nuttall ! Kentucky and 

 Tennessee, Pursh. — Stem climbing, about twenty feet long (PitrsA,). Leaves 

 3-7 inches in diameter, sparsely hirsute on the veins underneath ; the sinuses 

 commonly rounded, and often extending beyond the centre of the lamina. 

 Racemes shorter than the petioles, supra-axillary ; the pedicels 1-4-flow^ered. 

 Sterile Fl. Bracteole at the base of the sepals minute. Sepals obovate- 

 oblong, obtuse. Stamens shorter than the sepals : filaments compressed, ra- 

 ther thick ; anther cells linear-oblong, introrse, the cells parallel with the axis 

 of the filament. Fertile Fl. Sepals as in the sterile flowers. Abortive 

 stamens half the length of the sepals ; the spurious anther cells oblong and 

 somewhat diverging. Ovaries oblong, straight: stigmas sessile, fimbriate. 

 Drupe exactly oval, nearly an inch long (black, Pursh), compressed contrary 

 to the sutures. Nut deeply excavated in front, convex and smooth on the 

 back. Albumen fleshy and oily, in the fonn of a shallow cup. Embryo very 

 broad, lying in a shallow cavity in the midst of the albumen; cotyledons 

 oval, very thin and membranaceous, at length diverging. — The back and front 

 layers of albumen at length become soldered together, so that the shallow 

 cavity is divided into two cells, in each of which a cotyledon is lodged ; as in 

 Cocculus suberosus, DC. figured by Gsertner {Fr. 1. i. 70. /. 1.), and as de- 

 scribed by Wight & Arnott {Prodr. ft. Penins. hid. 1. p. 11). We have 

 seen the ripe fruit of this species only when deprived of its pulp. In the 

 half-grown state it is ovate, nearly straight, and slightly pointed at the summit 

 with a very short style. When fuUy grown the style appears to be still 

 nearly terminal. The shell is smooth, exactly oval, with a large cavity in 



