Vor. IL] MOONSEED FAMILY. 93 
Family 28. MENISPERMACEAE DC. Prodr. 1: 95. 1824. 
MOoonSEED FAMILY. 
Climbing or twining woody or herbaceous vines, with alternate entire or 
lobed leaves, no stipules, and small dioecious panicled racemose or cymose 
flowers. Sepals 4-12. Petals 6, imbricated in 2 rows, sometimes fewer, or none, 
Stamens about the same number as the petals. Carpels 3-0 (generally 6), 
1-ovuled, separate; styles commonly recurved. Fruit drupaceous. Embryo 
long, curved. 
About 55 genera and 150 species, mainly of tropical distribution, a few extending into the tem- 
perate zones. 
Petals none. 1. Calycocarpum. 
Petals present. 
Stamens 6; drupe red. 2. Cebatha. 
Stamens 12-many; drupe black. 3. Menispermum, 
1. CALYCOCARPUM Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1:48. 1838. 
A high climbing vine, with large petioled palmately lobed leaves, and greenish flowers 
in long narrow drooping panicles. Sepals 6, oblong, obtuse. Petals none. Stamens about 
12, nearly equalling the sepals; anthers 2-celled. Pistils 3; stigma laciniate. Drupe oval, 
the stone flattened and hollowed out on one side. [Greek, cup-fruit, in allusion to the cup- 
like stone. ] : 
A monotypic genus of eastern North America. 
1. Calycocarpum Lyoni (Pursh) Nutt. Cup-seed. (Fig. 1647.) 
aeenteeonym Lyont Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 371. 
1814. 
Calycocarpum Lyoni Nutt.; A. Gray, Gen. Ill. 
1:76. 1848. 
Climbing to the tops of trees, glabrous or 
slightly pubescent. Leaves long-petioled, ~ 
thin, very broadly ovate or nearly orbicular 
in outline, 5’-8’ long, cordate with a broad 
round sinus, palmately 5-7-lobed, glabrous 
above, more or less pubescent on the veins be- 
neath; lobes ovate or oblong, acute or acumi- 
nate, repand, dentate or entire; panicles axil- 
lary, 5’-10’ long, loose; flowers 2’’ broad, 
strictly dioecious; drupe nearly 1’ long, black, 
the stone toothed or erose along the margin 
of its lateral cavity; pistillate flowers some- 
times containing abortive stamens. 
In rich woods, Illinois to Missouri and Kan- 
sas, south to Florida and Louisiana, May-June, 
the fruit ripe in August. 
2. CEBATHA Forsk. Fl. AEgypt. 171. 1775. 
[Coccutus DC. Syst. Veg. 1: 515. 1818.) 
Climbing vines with small dioecious panicled flowers. Sepals 6, arranged in 2 series. 
Petals 6, shorter than the sepals, concave. Stamens 6; anthers 4-celled or 4-lobed. Pistils 
3-6, sometimes accompanied by sterile filaments; styles erect; stigma entire. Drupe glo- 
bose or ovoid, the stone flattened, curved. [Name Arabic. ] 
A genus of about 10 species, mainly of tropical regions, two or three in the temperate zones. 
