420 VITACEiE. Vitis. 



minute, at the base of very hard albumen. (Characterized without reference to 

 Leea, which makes a transition to Meliacece.) 



* Nectariferous disk or glands surrouuding the ovary or its base, aud at least partly free 

 from it : plauts climbiug by the prehension and coiling of naked-tipped tendrils. 



1. VITIS. Flowers polygamo-dicecious (i. e. some individuals perfect and fertile, others 

 sterile with at most rudimentary ovary), 5-merous. Corolla calyptrately caducous, the 

 petals in anthesis cast off from the base while cohering by their tips. Ilypogynous disk 

 of 5 nectariferous glands alternate with stamens. Style short and thick, or conical. Berry 

 pulpy ; seeds pyriform, with contracted beak-like base. Leaves simple in ours. 



2. CISSUS. Flowers perfect or sometimes polygamous, 4-merous or several 5-merous. 

 Petals expanding in anthesis. Disk annular or cupular, girting the base of the ovary and 

 below adherent to it, the margins or summit free. Berry inedible, mostly with scanty 

 pulp ; seeds usually obovate-trigonous. Leaves simple or ternately compound. 



* * No distinct disk or free nectariferous glands, but a nectariferous and wholly confluent 

 thickening of the base of the ovary, or even this obsolete : plants climbing, mostly by 

 adhesion of dilated and disciform tips of the tendril-branches. 



3. AMPELOPSIS. Flowers perfect or rarely sub-polygamous, 5-meroiis. Petals expand- 

 ing in anthesis. Seeds trigonous-obovate, beakless. Leaves palmately compound. 



1. VfTIS, Tourn. Vine, Grape-vine. (The classical Latin name.) — A 

 widespread genus in the North Temperate Zone, richest in species in North 

 America. The species undergo marked adaptations to local conditions, and 

 several of them hybridize freely, so that the study of them is perplexing ; and 

 the difficulty is increased by the fact that the foliage varies in character on dif- 

 fei'ent parts of the plant, and herbarium material cannot j^roperly represent the 

 fruit. The large viticultural interests of North America, outside of the hot- 

 houses and the Pacific Slope and Mexico, have been developed within the cen- 

 tury from the native species of grapes (chiefly Vitis Lahrusca and V. cBstivalis) 

 and their hybrids with the Old World wine-grape ( Vitis viiiifera). The last is 

 almost exclusively grown in California, and is sometimes inclined to be sponta- 

 neous. It has rounded and thinnish notched and more or less lobed leaves which 

 are either glabrous or arachnoid-tomentose beneath, intermittent tendrils, and 

 pulp of the fruit cohering with the skin. — Inst. 613; L. Gen. no. 161 ; DC. 

 Prodr. i. 633; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 242; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 163; Planch, in 

 DC. Monogr. Phaner. v. 321. 



§ 1. MusCADiNiA, Planch. 1. c. 324. Bark bearing prominent lenticels, never 



shredding : nodes without diaphragms : tendrils simple : flower-clusters small and 



not much elongated : seeds oval or oblOng, without a distinct stipe-like beak. — 



Pancticiilosis, Munson, Wild Grapes N. A. 8, 14. 



V. rottindifolia, Michx. (Muscadine, Southern Fox Grape, Bullace or Bullit or 

 Bull Grape.) Vine with hard warty wood, running rampantly even 60 to 100 feet over 

 bushes and trees, and in the shade often sending down dichotomous aerial roots : leaves 

 rather small to medium (2 to 6 inches long), dense in texture and glabrous both sides (some- 

 times pubescent along the A-eins beneath), cordate-ovate and not lobed, mostly with a 

 prominent and sohietimes an acuminate point (but somewliat contracted above the termina- 

 tion of the two main side veins), the under surface finely reticulated between the veins, the 

 teeth and the apex angular, coar-se and acute, the basal sinus shallow, broad and edentate ; 

 petiole slender and (like the young growth) fine-scurfy, about the length of the leaf-blade : 

 tendrils (or flower-clusters) discontinuous, every third node being bare ; fruit-bearing clusters 



