MENISPERMUM — MOONSEED. 75 



MENISPERMACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Shrubby climbing vines, with alternate, pal- 

 mate, or peltate leaves, on slender petioles, without stipules ; liowers small, 

 dicecious or polygamous, in axillary racemes or panicles ; sepals and pet- 

 als similar, in three or more rows, imbricated in the bud ; stamens 6 or 

 more, hypogynous ; ovaries 3 to 6 ; fruit a 1-seeded drupe with a long curved 

 embryo in scanty albumen. 



An order comprising about sixty genei'a, mostly tropical, three only, and 

 of each but a single species, being natives of the United States. Of exotic 

 species, Calumba (Jateorrhiza calumba Miers), Pareira ( Chondodendron to- 

 mentosum Ruiz et Pavon), and Cocculus Indicus [Anamirta paniculata Cole- 

 brooke) are among the best known and most important. 



MENISPERMUM. — Moonseed. 



IVIenlspermum Canadense Linne. — Canadian Moonseed. 



Description. — Calyx : sepals 4 to 8, ovate-oblong, greenish-yellow. Co- 

 rolla : petals 6 to 8, much smaller than the sepals, orbicular, obtusely cuneate 

 at the base. Stamens 12 to 20 in the sterile flowers, as long as the sepals ; 

 anthers of 4 spherical lobes. Pistils 2 to 4 in the fertile flowers, raised on a 

 short common receptacle. Fruit a stipitate, globular drupe, about one- 

 third of an inch in diameter, nearly black, the pulp small in quantity. 

 After flowering the pistil in development becomes incurved, so that the 

 mark of the stigma is near the base of the drupe, and the stone, laterally 

 compressed, forms an almost complete ring, or is lunate, whence the com- 

 mon name. 



Stem shrubby at the base, or entirely herbaceous, 8 to 15 feet or 

 more in length, slender, sjDringing from a long and freely rooted rhizome. 

 Leaves 3 to 4 inches in length and of somewhat greater breadth, peltate 

 near the edge, 3- to 7-angled or lobed, pubescent on the veins, dark green 

 above, glaucous beneath ; petioles about as long as the leaves. The flowers 

 appear in Jmie and July ; the fruit ripens in September, is covered with a 

 bloom, and resembles small clusters of frost grapes. In addition to its 

 common name of moonseed, it also bears that of yelloiv sarsajjarilla, and 

 yellow parilla, the latter evidently a contraction of the former. At one 

 time it was introduced into commerce as Texas sarsaparilla, and was em- 

 ploj'ed to some extent as a substitute for time sarsaparilla (Smilax offici- 

 nalis). 



Habitat.— In moist woods and along the banks of streams, from Canada 

 to the Carolinas and westward ; common. 



Parts Used. — The rhizome and rootlets — United States Pharmacopma. 



Constituents. — In an analysis of moonseed made by Professor Maisch 

 there was found a small quantity of berberina, and a larger proportion of 



