THE GRAPE-VINE FAMILY. 151 



vulgaris, is a bushy shrub, three to six feet high, with abundance of 

 slender twigs, simple and oval leaves with fine serratures, numerous 

 three-cleft thorns, and pendulous racemes of yellow flowers, succeeded 

 by scarlet berries, the size and shape of a grain of rye, agreeably acid, 

 and excellent for jam. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 Plentiful in hedges near Congleton and Peover ; also in hedges at 

 Prestwich, near Middleton, and beyond Jackson's Boat, on the way to 

 Baguley. Formerly it was much more plentiful, but the herb-doctors 

 have destroyed it for the sake of the roots, which are reputed a cure 

 for the jaundice. (J. S.) Fl. June. Fruit in September. 

 E. B. i. 49; Baxter ii. 116. 

 Frequent in gardens. 



The commonest foreign species is the Mahonia pinndta, a low-growing shrub 

 with pinnate, thorny-edged, evergreen leaves, and dense, sessile panicles of yellow 

 flowers, oi)euing with the first steps of spring, and followed by clusters of purple 

 berries, resembling little grapes. The herbaceous Epimediuvi alpinum, (E. B. 

 vii. 438.) a very elegant plant, with twice-temate leaves, the leaflets oblique and 

 drooping, occurs in curiosity-gardens. 



XXVIII.— THE GRAPE-VINE FAMILY. Vitdceis or AmpeMece. 



Shrubs with long and slender stems, climbing by means of axillary 

 tendi-ils. Leaves petioled, simple, and undivided, or fan-lobed, or 

 palmate, and even quinate. Flowers green and minute, regular and 

 pentamerous ; stamens five ; pistil solitary, ripening into an oval or 

 globular berry. Inflorescence in panicles or umbels. A few excep- 

 tions occur to these characters, but not in ordinary Botany. 



The species, which number between two and three hundred, are 

 natives of the milder and warmer parts both of the eastern and the 

 western hemisphere, and especially of India, but none are indigenous 

 to Europe. The birth-place of the grape itself, that good Samaritan 

 of the kingdom of plants, and most illustrious tree in nature, appears 

 to be the shores of the Caspian Sea, in latitude 37°. Though often 

 grown out of doors in the neighbourhood of Manchester, the grape 

 seldom ripens fruit worth eating. Unless provided with artificial 

 shelter, the berries rarely differ much iu appearance from green peas ; 

 the hindering nights of autumn chill their sap, and we have to look 



