420 VITACE.E. VUis. 



minute, at the base of very hard albumen. (Characterized without reference to 

 Z,eea, wliich makes a transition to 3Ieliacece.) 



■* Nectariferous disk or glands surrouudiug the ovary or its base, and at least partly free 

 from it : plants climbing by tlie prehension and coiling of naked-tipped tendrils. 



1. VITIS. Flowers polygamo-dioecious (i. e. some individuals perfect and fertile, others 

 sterile with at most rudimentary ovary), 5-merous. Corolla calyptrately caducous, the 

 petals in authesis cast off from the base while coliering by their tips. Hypogyuous disk 

 of 5 nectariferous glands alternate with stamens. Style short and thick, or conical. Berry 

 pulpy ; seeds pyriform, witli contracted l)eak-like base. Leaves simple in ours. 



2. CISSUS. Flowers perfect or sometimes polygamous, 4-merous or several 5-merous. 

 Petals expanding in antiiesis. Disk annular or cupular, girting tlie base of the ovary .and 

 below adherent to it, the margins or summit free. Berry inedible, mostly with scanty 

 pulp ; seeds usually obovate-trigonous. Leaves simple or ternately compound. 



* * No distinct disk or free nectariferous glands, but a nectariferous and wliolly confluent 

 thickening of the base of the ovary, or even this obsolete : plants climbing, mostly by 

 adhesion of dilated and disciform tips of the tendril-branches. 



3. AMPELOPSIS. Flowers perfect or rarely sulvpolyganious, 5-merous. Petals expand- 

 ing in anthesis. Seeds trigonous-obovate, beakless. Leaves palmately coni])ound. 



1. VlTIS, Tourn. Vine, Grapk-vixe. (The classical Latin name.) — A 

 widespread genus in the North Temperate Zone, richest in species in North 

 America. The species undergo marked adaptations to local conditions, and 

 several of them hybridize freely, so that the study of them is perplexing ; and 

 the difficulty is increased by the fact that the foliage varies in character on dif- 

 ferent parts of the plant, and herbarium material cannot properly represent the 

 fruit. The large viticultural interests of North America, outside of the hot- 

 houses and the Pacific Slope and Mexico, have been developed within the cen- 

 tury from the native species of grapes (chiefly Vitis Labrnsca and V. cestivalis) 

 and their hybrids with the Old World wine-grape ( Vitis vinifera). The last is 

 almost exclusively grown in California, and is sometimes inclined to be sponta- 

 neous. It has rounded and thinnish notched and more or less lobed leaves which 

 are either glabrous or arachnoid-tomentose beneath, intermittent tendrils, and 

 pulp of the fruit cohering with the skin. — Inst. 613; L. Gen. no. 161 ; DC. 

 Prodr. i. 633; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 242; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 163; Planch, in 

 DC. Monogr. Phaner. v. 321. 



§ 1. MuscADi'xiA, Planch. 1. c. 324. Bark bearing prominent lenticels, never 

 shredding : nodes without diaphragms : tendrils simple : flower-clusters small and 

 not much elongated : seeds oval or oblong, without a distinct stipe-like beak. — 

 Puncticulosis, Munson, Wild Grapes N. A. 8, 14. 



V. rotundifolia, Michx. (Muscadine, Socthern Fox Grape, Bullace or Billit or 

 Bi LL Grape.) Vine with hard warty wood, running rampantly even 60 to 100 feet over 

 bushes and trees, and in the shade often sending down dichotomous aerial roots : leaves 

 ratlier small to medium (2 to 6 inches long), dense in texture and glabrous both sides (some- 

 times pubescent along the veins beneath), cordate-ovate and not lobed, mo.stly with a 

 prominent and sometimes an acuminate point (but somewhat contracted above the termina- 

 tion of the two main side veins), the under surface finely reticulated between the veins, tlie 

 teeth and the apex angular, coarse and acute, the l)asal sinus shallow, broad and edentate ; 

 petiole slender and (like the young growth) fine-scurfy, about the length of the leaf-blade : 

 tendrils (or flower-dusters) discontinuous, every third node being bare ; fruit-bearing clusters 



