264 PRACTICAL BOTANY. 



856. Woody climbers. Leaves palmately-veined, and 

 commonly lobed 857 



Trees or shrubs, not climbing 859 



857. Tendrils none. Stamens C-20 (not on a disk); 

 anthers 4-celled. Both sepals and petals conspicuous. 

 Pistils 2-6. Fruit a 1-seeded druj^e. Flowers in axillary 

 racemes, or panicles S58 



Tendrils j) resent, with the panicled, or thyrsoid 

 flower-clusters opposite the leaves. Stamens 5 on a 5-lobed 

 disk. Calyx truncate, minute. Petals 5, cohering at the 

 top, while they separate at the base, and usually falling off, 

 resembling a mitre. Berry 2-celIed, usually 4-seeded. 



(158) Vitis. 



858. Stamens, petals and sepals 6. 



Cocculus Carolinus, D.C. 

 Stamens 12-20 in the sterile flowers, as long as the 

 sepals. Sepals 4-8. Petals C-8, short. 



Menispermiun Canadense, L. 



850, Petals present in both sorts of flowers 860 



Petals only in the pistillate flowers present, small 

 and fleshy, deciduous (often wanting). Stamens 10 (5-12), 

 inserted on the margin of a convex disk. Fertile flowers 1 

 or 3-8 at the summit of a slender peduncle. Staminate 

 flowers many in a simple or compound dense cluster of fasci- 

 cles. Style long, revolute, stigmatic down one side. Drupe 

 ovoid, with a striate, 1-seeded stone, blue, or bluish-black. 

 Trees. (657)Nyssa. 



860, Stamens 4-6 861 



Stamens usually 16 in the sterile flowers, and 8 im- 

 perfect ones in the fertile. Calyx and corolla 4- to 6-lobed. 

 Styles 4, 2-lobed at the apex. Ovary 8-celled. Berry plum- 

 like, yellow, when ripe, 1 inch in diameter, 4- to 8-seeded, 

 surrounded at the base by the thickish calyx. Fertile flow- 

 ers axillary and solitary, the sterile smaller and often clus- 

 tered. (421) Diospyros Virginiana, L. 



861, Stamens alternate with the petals. Leaves some- 

 times armed with spiny teeth. Flowers axillary, in sessile 

 or ped uncled clusters, sometimes also solitary. Fruit a 

 drupe with 2-6 stones 862 



