86 BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



■*- •<- Bark of stem close and smooth, pale. 

 V. VUlpina, Muscadine, Bullace, or Fox-Grape of the South. River- 

 banks from Maryland and Kentucky S. : leaves rather small, round in outline, 

 seldom and slightly lobed, glossy and mostly smooth both sides, the margin cut 

 into coarse and broad teeth; clusters small; fruit large, ^' -%> in diameter, 

 purple, thick-skinned, musky, or pleasant-flavored, ripe in early autumn : the 

 original of the Scuppernong Grape, &c. 



§ 2. Cissus. Petals and stamens 4 or 5, the former opening regularly : disk 

 thick and broad, 4 - 5-lobed: flowers mostly perfect : berries not larger than 

 peas, not eatable. 

 * Wild species S. Sf W., smooth, usually with 5 stamens and petals. 



V. indivisa, a species with simple leaves like those of a true Grape, heart- 

 shaped or ovate, pointed, coarsely-toothed, but not lobed ; flower-clusters small 

 and loose ; style slender. 



V. bipinnkta, a bushy or low-climbing plant, with few tendrils, and de- 

 compound leaves, the small leaflets cut-toothed. 



* * Exotic species, with mostly 4 stamens and petals. 



V. heteroph^Ua, from Japan, a form with the leaves blotched or varie- 

 gated with white (small, thin, variously 3 - 5-lobed), and small blue berries, is 

 hardy in gardens ; cult, for the variegated foliage. 



V. discolor, from Java, cult, in hothouses, for its splendid foliage ; leaves 

 lance-oblong with a heart-shaped base, crimson underneath, velvety-lustrous 

 and dark-green shaded with purple or violet, or often mottled with white, on the 

 upper surface, the shoots reddish. 



2. AMPELOPSIS, VIRGINIA-CREEPER. (Name from Greek words, 

 meaning like the Vine : indeed, it is hardly distinct enough from the second 

 section of Vitis.) 



A. quinquefdlia, the only genuine species : in all low grounds, climbing 

 extensively, sometimes by rootlets as well as by the tendrils, the latter specially 

 fitted for ascending walls and trunks, to which they attach themselves firmly by 

 sucker-like disks at the tip of their branches (Lessons, p. 38, figs. 62, 63) ; leaf- 

 lets 5, digitate, lance-oblong, cut-toothed, changing to crimson in autumn ; 

 flowers cymose, in summer ; berries small, black or bluish. 



33. RHAMNACE^, BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



Shrubs or trees, of bitterish and astringent properties, with simple 

 chiefly alternate leaves and small flowers ; well marked by the sta- 

 mens of the number of the valvate sepals (4 or 5) and alternate 

 with them, i. e. opposite the petals, inserted on a disk which lines 

 the calyx-tube and often unites it with the base of the ovary, this 

 having a single erect ovule in each of the (2 - 5) cells. Branches 

 often thorny : stipules minute or none : flowers often apetalous or 

 polygamous. Petals commonly hooded or involute around the sta- 

 men before it. (Lessons, p. 126, fig, 282, 283.) 



» Calyx free from the ovary. 



1. BERCHEMIA. Twining climbers, with straight-veined leaves. Petals 5, with- 



out claws, rather longer than the stamens. Disk thick, nearly filling the bot- 

 tom of the calyx. Ovary 2-celled, becoming a 2-celled small stone-fruit, with 

 purple and thin pulp. 



2. RHAMNUS. Erect shrubs or trees, with loosely-veined leaves. Petals 4 or 5, 



with short claws. Stamens short. Ovary 2-4-celled, becoming a black 

 berry-like fruit, containing 2-4 cartilaginous seed-like nutlets, which are 

 grooved on the back, as is the contained seed. Cotyledons foliaceous. 



3. FRANGULA. Like Rhamnus, but with straight-ve'ined leaves ; the nutlets 



not grooved but convex on the back : cotyledons thick. 



