VITIS INDIVISA. 



ENTIRE-LEAVED IVY-GRAPE. 



NATURAL ORDER, VITACE^. 



VlTIS INDIVISA, Willdcnow. — Leaves simple, undivided, ovate, truncate, or cordate at the base, 

 acuminate, toothed-serrate, pubescent; peduncles forking ; petals and stamens five; style 

 slender; disk cup-shaped; berry one to three-seeded. (Chapman's Flora of the Southern 

 United States. See also Wood's Class-Book of Botany, and Gray's Manual of the Botany 

 of the Northern United States.) 



HE plant which our plate illustrates belongs to the great 

 order of grape-vines, and we need scarcely add that this 

 order is one of the most famous, as regards its connection with 

 the history of man. Homer frequently mentions wine, and the 

 scriptural account of Noah, according to which the planting of 

 a vineyard was one of the first occupations of the patriarch 

 after the deluge had subsided, shows that the original wild 

 grape had even then lost its harsh character by cultivation, and 

 that the fruit of its improved descendants was among the most 

 highly valued products of horticulture. The botanical name of 

 the grape-vine, Vitis, is also of great antiquity, and its original 

 meaning was lost long ago, although some philologists are of 

 opinion that it refers to the rope-like stems of the plant, which 

 might be used for binding, or for basket-making. This opinion 

 receives some support from the fact that a number of words, 

 having a similar meaning, and still in use in various modern 

 languages, have evidently been derived from a similar root. 



Our Viiis ijidivisa, however, can hardly claim to be connected 

 with the ancient history of the genus, as it has been admitted 

 to membership in the family only within a comparatively recent 

 time. There is httlc, indeed, in the leaves, and still less in the 



