VITACEAB 51 



HEART-LEAVED VITIS. Chicken Grape. Winter Grape. 



Stem 10 to 20 feet long, climbing and spreading over bushes. Leaves 2 to 6 inches 

 long, smooth and a little shining, the nerves beneath pubescent; petioles 2 to 5 

 inches long. Flowers greenish, in loose racemes, which often have long abortive 

 branches at base, retrograding into tendrils. Fruit small, greenish amber color, or 

 sometimes nearly black, when mature, very acerb. 



Hob. Thickets, fence-rows, &c.: frequent. FL June. Fr. NOT. 

 Obs. This was mistaken for the V. vulpina, of Linn, until Mr. 

 ELLIOTT suggested that the true original Fox Grape was most prob- 

 ably what MICHAUX named V. rotundifolia ; and which is known in 

 Virginia, and further South, by the various names of Fox Grape, 

 Bull, or Bullet Grape, Muscadine, and Scuppernong Grape. 



84. AM PEL-OP'SIS, MX. 



[Or. Ampdos, vine, and opsis, aspect ; from its resemblance to the Vine.] 

 Calyx slightly 5-toothed, without a perigynous disk. Petals 5, 

 opening at apex, spreading, or reflexed. 



1. A. quinquef olia, MX, Leaves digitate in fives ; leaflets 



ovate-oblong, smooth ; racemes cymose. 



A. hederacea. DC. $ FL Cestr. ed. 2. p. 153. 



FIVE-LEAVED AMPELOPSIS. Virginia Creeper. American Ivy. 



Stem 10 to 30 or 40 feet long, diffusely branching, climbing trees and walls, clinging 

 to them by adhesive expansions of the points of the tendrils. Leaflets 2 to 4 inches 

 long, becoming crimson in autumn ; common petiole 2 to 6 inches long. Flowers 

 yellowish-green, umbellulate in compound cymes. Berries blueish-black ; pedun- 

 cles crimson. 

 Hob. Woodlands, thickets, &c.: common. FL July. Fr. Octo. 



Obs. This is often cultivated against walls, making a brilliant 

 show, for a few days, in autumn. 



ORDER XXXIII. POLYGALACEAE. 



Jferbs (in the U. States) ; leaves mostly alternate, simple, entire, without stipules ; 

 flowers irregular, somewhat papilionaceous ; stamens 4 to S, diadelphous ; anthers '. 

 mostly 1-celled, opening by a pore at summit ; style curved, often cucullate ; fruit 

 a compressed, 2-celled 2-seeded capsule; seeds carunculate; embryo large, in the 

 axis of scanty albumen. 



85. POI,YG'ALA, Tournef. 



[Gr. Pulys, much, and Gala, milk; being supposed to promote that secretion.] 

 Sepals 5, persistent, the upper and 2 lower ones small, greenish,, 

 the 2 lateral ones (called wings) much larger, and petal-like. Petals 

 3, hypogynous, connected with each other, and with the stamen- 

 lube, the middle or lower one keel-shaped, often crested. Capsule 

 compressed contrary to the narrow septum, loculicidal. Seeds with 

 an arillus-like caruncle, or variously shaped appendage at the 

 hilum.(o,) 



(a) A. DE ST. HILAIRE says, " La caroncule des Polygala, ne naissant point sur le 

 cordon ombilical, ne peut 'etre un ariUe. Cette caroncule est, coiuine celle dea 

 Kicins, le resultat de 1' epaississement des bords du micropyle." 



