Menispermum. MENISPERMACE^. 31 



Order IV. MENISPERMACEyE. Juss. The Moonseed Tribe. 



Flowers dioecious, rai'ely monoecious or polygamous. Sepals 3 - 12, in 1 to 3 

 rows, deciduous. Petals 1-8 (usually as many as the sepals), sometimes 

 wanting in the pistillate flower. Stamens distinct or monadelphous, equal in 

 number to the petals and opposite to them, or 2 - 4 times as many : anthers 

 adnate or innate, and consisting of four globose lobes, or with the cells hori- 

 zontal and placed end to end, ojaeiiing longitudinally. Ovaries usually several, 

 distinct or rarely united ; commonly only one or two of them fructify. Fruit 

 a drupe or berry, one-seeded, when young nearly straight, but at length be- 

 coming oblique, lunate, or so much incurved that the apex and base are 

 brought into contact ; the nut (endocarp) bony, and often tuberculate on the 

 broad margin. "Seed heterotropous, conformed to the cavity of the nut. 

 Embryo large, enclosed in the rather thin fleshy albumen. — Climbing or 

 twining shrubby or suffruticose plants. Leaves alternate, without stipules, 

 simple and palmately veined. Flowers minute, in racemes or panicles. 



1. MENISPERMUM. Linn. ; Endl. gen. A685. MOOSSEED 



[From men-e, the moon, and sperTUa, a seed ; the seeds or nuts being usually lunate.] 



Flowers dioecious. Sepals 4 - 8, in a double series. Petals 4-8, in a double series ; some- 

 times none. Stam. Fl. Stamens 12 - 20, distinct. Pistill. Fl. Ovaries 1 - 4 (usually 

 solitary). Drupes 1-4 (usually solitary), globose-reniform. Racemes axillary, or supra- 

 axillary. Sterile and fertile flowers often dissimilar. 



1. Menispermum Canadense, Linn. Canadian Moonseed. 



Leaves peltate, with the petiole near the base, smoothish, angularly lobed, the lobes acute 

 or obtuse ; racemes compound ; sepals 4 - 7 ; petals 6 - 7, very small, somewhat fleshy ; 

 stamens 15 - 19 ; anthers innate, 4-lobed. — Micltx.fl. 2. p. 241 ; Lam. diet. t. 824 ; Pursh, 

 f,. 2. p. 370 ; DC. syst. 2. p. 540 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 715 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 570 ; Torr. c)j- 

 Gr.fl. N. Am. I. p. 48. M. Virginicum, Linn. ; Willd. sp. 4. p. 824. 



Stem suffruticose at the base, or entirely herbaceous, 8-15 feet or more in length, slender. 

 Leaves 3-4 inches long, and of rather greater breadth, with 3-5 angular, lobes, often cor- 

 date at the base, pubescent on the veins and somewhat glaucous underneath ; the petioles 

 about as long as the leaves. Flowers very small, greenish yellow ; the sterile ones in pani- 

 culate supra-axillary racemes : pedicels about one line long, bracteolale. Sepals commonly 

 4-5, obovate-oblong. Petals much smaller than the sepals, orbicular, obtusely cuneate ai 



