N. ORD.—MENISPERMACE®, 14 
GENUS.—MENISPERMUM,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—DICECIA POLYANDRIA. 
MENISPERMUM. 
YELLOW PARILLA. 
SYN.—MENISPERMUM CANADENSE, LINN.; M. ANGULATUM, MGN.; M. 
SMILACINUM, D. C.; CISSAMPELOS SMILACINA, LINN. 
COM. NAMES.—YELLOW PARILLA, CANADIAN MOONSEED, TEXAS OR 
YELLOW SARSAPARILLA, MAPLE VINE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH ROOT OF MENISPERMUM CANADENSE, L. 
Description.—This perennial climber reaches a length of from 8 to 15 feet. 
Root cylindrical, long, yellow; stem slender. Leaves ample, peltate, with the inser- 
tion of the petiole near the base, 3 to 7 lobed or angled; /odes obtuse or more or 
less acute ; venation palmate, the veins pubescent below; fe/zo/es about the length 
of the leaves. /izflorescence in long, supra-axillary compound racemes or panicles. 
Sepals 4 to 8, obovate-oblong, arranged in a double series. Pedals 6 to 8, small, 
somewhat cuneate, fleshy, with a thickened free margin. Stamens 12 to 20 (in the 
sterile flowers), as long as the petals; //aments hardly thickened at the summit; 
anthers innate, 4-celled. Fisti/s 2 to 4 (in the fertile flowers), raised upon a 
short, common torus, usually perfecting but two drupes; stgmas flattened. Fruit 
a globose-reniform, black, and stipitate drupe, furnished with a bloom, and retain- 
ing the mark of the stigma; zé//ef more or less lunate, wrinkled and grooved, 
laterally flattened ; eméryo slender, horseshoe-shaped ; cotyledons filiform. 
Menispermaceze.—This goodly-sized family of tropical or sub-tropical, woody 
climbers, is represented in North America by but 3 genera and 6 species. Leaves 
alternate, palmate or peltate; s/pules none. Inflorescence in axillary racemes or 
panicles; flowers small, moncecious, dicecious or polygamous ; estivation imbricate. 
Sepals arranged in two or more rows, deciduous. eta/s usually equal in number 
to the sepals, hypogynous. Séamens monadelphous or separate, equal in number to 
the petals and opposite them, or from 2 to 4 times as many, adnate or innate, com- 
_ posed of 4 horizontal ovoid lobes arranged tip to base, and opening longitudinally 
See Fig. 6). istils 3 to 6; ovaries several, united or 
separate, nearly straight; séigmas apical, but looking downward in fruit on account 
of the incurving of the ripening ovaries. /7vu/a 1-celled drupe; seeds 1 in each 
cell; eméryo large, long and curved, surrounded by the albumen ; Poe rere 
Our only proven plant of this order, beside Menispermum, is t : se = 
Cocculus Indicus (Axamirta paniculata, Cole), a narcotico-poison, used by the 
(apparently horizontal. 
seed; the seed being lunate in shape. 
* Maun, mene, moon; oréppa, sperma, 
