10 PIALYPETALOUS EXOGENS 



series larger, and spreading. Stamens in a globular cluster, cover- 

 ing the receptacle of the few pistils. Carpels 3 (by abortion often 

 1 or 2), oblong or ovoid, pulpy, several-seeded; seeds arillate. 



It A. triloba, Dunal. Leaves obovate-oblong and cuneate, 

 pointed; outer petals 3 or 4 times as long as the calyx, roundish- 

 ovate. 

 THREE-LOBED ASIMINA. Papaw. Custard-apple. 



Stem 10 to 15 or 20 feet high, branched. Leaves 6 to 9 inches long ; petioles 

 scarcely % an inch in length. Flowers solitary, lateral, appearing rather before 

 the leaves ; petals dark brownish-purple, with tinges of yellow within. Carpels 

 connate, becoming a 2 or 3-lobed yellowish pulpy berry, or more usually (by 

 abortion) a simple ovoid-oblong berry, 2 to 3 inches in length. 

 Hob. Banks of streams; Schuylkill: not common. Fl. May. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. The fruit of this small tree is esculent, and not unpalatable, 

 under cultivation. 



ORDER IV. MENISPERMACEAE. 



Woody or suffruticose climbers ; leaves peltate, or palmate, alternate, without stipules ; 

 sepals and petals similar, in 3 or more series, imbricated in the bud, hypogynous ; 

 polygamo-didicous ; pistils 3 to 6 ; fruit a drupe ; seed 1, with a large curved embryo, 

 and little albumen. 



The well-known narcotic fruit, called Cocculus Indicus, or Fishing-berries, is fur- 

 nished by this order. 



15. MEtflSPERM'ITM, L. 



[Gr. Mene, moon, and sperma, seed; from the form of the nut] 

 Flowers dioicous : Sepals and petals arranged in fours, in 2 or 3 series. 

 Stamens 12 to 20; anthers 4-celled. Pistils 2 to 4, somewhat stipi- 

 tatQ. Drupes roundish-reniform. 



1. M. C'siiiJldense., L. Leaves peltate near the base, 3- to 

 7-angled, or sub-lobed ; flowers in axillary paniculate racemes. 

 CANADIAN MENISPERMUM. Moon-seed. 



Perennial. Stem 8 to 12 or 15 feet long, slender, nearly simple, twining or 

 climbing over shrubs and fences. Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, and rather wider than 

 long, subcordate at base ; petioles 3 or 4 inches in length. Flowers small, of a dingy 

 yellowish-green tinged with purple; petals 8, smaller than the sepals. Drupes 

 black with a bloom, when mature ; nut wrinkled, lunate. 

 Hab. Rocky woods ; thickets and fence-rows : frequent. Fl. June. Fr. Sept. 



ORDER V. BERBERIDACEAE. 



Shrubs, or herbs; leaves alternate, compound, orlobed; stipules small, caducous 

 ^poZs and peMs both imbricated in the bud, in 2 or more series of 2 to 4 each; 

 stamens hypogynous, as many, or twice as many, as the petals, and opposite them ; 

 pistil single ; fruit mostly baccate; seeds albuminous. 



Herbs: Perennial: Embryo small ; cotyledons thick, 

 t Anthers opening by uplifted valves. 



16. CAITL,OPHYI/L,UM, MX. 



[Or. Kaulos, a stem, and PliyUon, a leaf; the petiole being stem-like.] 

 Sepal* 6, with 3 bractlets. Petals 6, gland-like, dilated and some- 

 what hooded or incurved at summit, much smaller than the sepals. 

 Stamens 6. Pistil gibbous; ovary bursting early by the pressure ol 

 the 2 enlarging ovules, and soon disappearing, the globular seedt 

 naked on their erect thick seed-stalks, becoming drupe-like. 



