MOONSEED 



Menispermum canadense L. 



June In that cluster of bluish-black fruits which look so much like 

 Woods frost grapes in the Septoni])er woods, there are little crescent 

 moons. They are hidden inside those frosty-looking berries hung 

 on the old fence, berries which are dry and blue-black all the way through, 

 not juicy as grapes are, and not edible. When the pulp is cleaned away 

 from the seed, it stands revealed in its almost cryptic shape. It is a 

 l>erfect crescent moon three-eighths of an inch in diameter, rough and 

 ridged, the seed of the moonseed vine. The name, as not always happens 

 in connnon plant names, is most appropriate. The botanical name as well, 

 Menispermum, means the same thing — meni is moon, spermum is seed, 

 and there it is, moonseed. 



The moonseed blossoms in June. Then the twining vines put forth 

 clusters of small white flowers with protruding stamens which give the 

 clusters a fuzzy look. From the rough stems the axillary stems thrust 

 out and bear their flowers which later become those clusters of fruits in 

 the warm sunshine of October. 



The leaf of moonseed is thick, bi-oadly heart-sha])ed or lobed, on 

 long petioles. From an exceedingly dec]) i-oot set firmly in the heavy 

 soil of the river woods, the vine rises in s])i'ing and twines about the low 

 trees, or on a fence where a fence hajipens to coincide with the direction 

 in which the moonseed wishes to go. The family of the moonseed. which 

 lias two other members in the United States, is chiefly a tropical grou]). 

 Vines are largely of tropical origin; few if any are known to grow wild 

 in the northern forests and the still more northern countries beyond 

 the border. 



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