16 DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. ' 



Trees or Shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, almost always' 

 entire, without stipules. Flowers usually green or brown. 



1. ASIMINA. De Cand. 



Calyx 3-parted. Petals 6, spreading, ovate-oblong ; in- 

 ner ones smallest. Anthers many, subsessile. Berries usu- 

 ally 3, ovate or oblong, sessile. Seeds many. 



Polyandria. Polygynia. 



A. trilaba De Cand. : leaves oblong, crenate, acuminate, and with 

 the branches smoothish ; flowers on short peduncles ; outer petals 

 roundish ovate, 4 times as long as the calyx. Awma triloba Linn. 

 Orchidocarpum arietinum Mch.Porcdia triloba Pursh. 



HAB. Banks of streams. N. Y. to Flor. W. to Miss. April. 

 A small tree 15 or 20 feet high. Fimcers solitary, dark-brown. 

 Fruit large, fleshy, patable, sweetish. l'ii/mu> Tree. 



ORDER IV. MENISPERMACE^. De Cand. Lind. 



Flowers diclinous, usually dioecious and very small. Se- 

 pals and petals confounded in one or several rows, each of 

 which is composed of 3 or 4 parts, hypogynous, deciduous. 

 Stamens monodelphous or occasionally distinct, sometimes 

 opposite the petals and equal to them in number, sometimes 

 3 or 4 times as many. Anthers adnate. Ovaries sometimes 

 numerous, each with one style, cohering slightly at base, 

 sometimes completely soldered together into a many celled 

 body. Drupes mostly berried, 1-seeded, compressed. Seed 

 same shape as the fruit ; embryo curved ; albumen wanting or 

 small ; cotyledons flat. 



Shrubs, with a flexible tough tissue and sarmentaceous 

 habit. Leaves alternate. Flowers small, usually racemose. 



1. MENISPERMUM. Linn. 



Sepals and petals arranged in fours, 2 or 3 rowed. STER- 

 ILE FL. Stamens 16 20. FERTILE FL. Ovaries 2 4. 

 Drupe berried, rouudish-reniform, 1-seeded. 



Dioecia. Monadelphia. 



R[. Canadense Linn.: leaves peltate, somewhat glabrous, cordate, 

 obtusely angled, mucronate ; racemes solitary, compound ; petals 8. 

 HAB. Banks of streams. Can. to Car. July. I?. Varies 

 somewhat in the angles of the leaves. Stem climbing. Flowers 

 greenish yellow. Berries black, resembling grapes. 



Moo n- Seed. 



