N. ORB.—VITACEZ. 
GENUS.—AMPELOPSIS,* MICHX. 
SEX. SYST.—PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
AMPELOPSIS. 
VIRGINIAN CREEPER. 
SYN.—AMPELOPSIS QUINQUEFOLIA, MICHX., AMPELOPSIS HEDERA- 
CEA, DC., VITIS QUINQUEFOLIA, LAM., VITIS HEDERACEA, WILLD., 
HEDERA QUINQUEFOLIA, LINN., CISSUS HEDERACEA, PERS. 
COM. NAMES.—VIRGINIAN CREEPER, AMERICAN IVY, WOODBINE, 
FIVE-LEAVES, FALSE GRAPH, WILD WOOD-VINE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH SHOOTS AND BARK OF AMPELOPSIS QUINQUE- 
FOLIA, MICHX. 
Description.—This common vine is familiar to all residents of the Northern 
United States, being often planted as a porch screen on account of its rapid 
growth, its beautiful shade and the magnificence of its autumnal coloring. The 
stem is extensively climbing, reaching out in all directions, and fastening itself 
by the disk-like appendages of the tendrils to anything that will give it support, 
thus sometimes reaching a great height. Leaves long petioled, digitate, smooth, 
with five oblong-lanceolate coarsely serrate leaflets. lower clusters cyme-like, 
the pedicels angularly jointed and somewhat umbellate. Yowers small, and 
perfect. Ca/yx entire, crenate, or slightly 5-toothed. /¢éa/s 5, at first seemingly 
united, then becoming distinct, concave and thick, expanding and reflexing before 
they fall. Désk none. Stamens 5; filaments slender; anthers \arge, oblong 
introrse. Ovary somewhat lobed at the base, conical, 5-angled, 2-celled; s¢yle 
short or wanting ; s¢igma small and simple, or slightly 2-lobed. Ovz/es 2 in each 
cell of the ovary and erect, anatropous from its base. /ywi¢ a dark purplish blue 
berry when ripe, about the size of a pea. Seeds bony, with a minute embryo at 
the base. : 
History and Habitat.—This woody climber haunts low moist grounds, well 
supplied with trees or bushes, often making the bodies of elm trees grandly 
picturesque by its dense green covering of their trunks, or hanging in festoons 
from blasted trees, and covering rocks and stumps with its dense verdure, it 
renders beautiful everything it clings to, while after the first frosts its vividly 
brilliant coloring makes one of the most striking points in an autumn landscape. 
It opens its yellowish green flowers, few at atime, in July; the berries being ripe 
in October. The Virginian Creeper is dreaded by many, in its wild state, when 
* dunsho;, a vine, and Of, appearance, 
