VINE FAMILY. Vltaceas. 



VINE FAMILY. Vitacece. 



Climbing shrubs mostly with tendrils, and with a pro- 

 fusion of sap. The joints rather thick and the bark 

 generally shredded. The flowers are regular and per- 

 fect or polygamous some plants with perfect, others 

 with staminate flowers. Petals 4-5, stamens the same. 

 Fruit a berry, or grape. Commonly visited by bees and 

 the beelike flies. 



The familiar wild grape of the north 

 Northern Fox 

 Grape bearing large black grapes with a bluish 



Vitis Labrusca bloom, tough skin, and a sweet and musky 

 Greenish flavor, f inch in diameter. The tendrils 



May-June are f or k e( j ) the bark shreddy, the young 

 twigs and leaves very woolly and rust-tinged. The large 

 light green leaves, opposite a tendril or flower-cluster, 

 are slightly toothed, entire, or deeply lobed, and rusty- 

 woolly beneath. The fertile greenish flowers are in a 

 compact cluster ; the grapes, in scant numbers, ripen in 

 September and October. This species is a parent of 

 the Isabella, Catawba, and Concord grapes. Thickets, 

 from Chesterville, Me., south to Ga., in the mountains, 

 and west to Minn. Common at Saddle River, N. J. 

 A species with smooth greenish branches, 



River rape ^ smooth, shining, light green leaves ; 



Vitis vulpina 



the tendrils in irregular occurrence. The 



leaves sharply three-lobed (sometimes more lobes) and 

 sharply toothed. The blue-bloomed black grapes are 

 less than J inch in diameter, and rather sweet ; they ripen 

 from July to September. Banks of rivers or near water, 

 from Me., south to Md., and west to Minn., S. Dak., and 

 Ark. In the east the grapes are sour and ripen late. 



. . A familiar creeping or trailing vine ex- 



Creepei- 1 tensively cultivated, common in its wild 



Psedera state on low, rich ground. It climbs by 



quinquefolia means of disc-bearing tendrils, and aerial 

 Whitish green root i e t s . The deep green leaves are com- 

 pound, with 5-7 (generally with five) 

 lance-shaped, sharply toothed leaflets, much curved, 

 troughed, and conspicuously veined. The insignificant 

 yellow-green or whitish green flowers are perfect or 

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