2 8 Menispermacece Menispermum. 



dioecious small inconspicuous flowers. The most remarkable 

 characteristic of most members of this group is the curved 

 carpels in which the base and proper apex are brought almost 

 close together. There are something like 300 species, chiefly 

 found within the tropics. 



1. MENISP^RMDM. 



Climbing deciduous shrubs with large peltate or cordate 

 palmately lobed leaves and paniculate flowers. Sepals 4 to 8, 

 in two series. Petals 6 to 8, shorter than the sepals. Male 

 flowers with from 1 2 to 24 stamens, whose anthers are 4-celled. 

 Female flowers with 6 sterile stamens and 2 to 4 woody 1- 

 seeded carpels in the form of a horse's shoe. Seed amphitropal, 

 with fleshy albumen and a small embryo. Two species are de- 

 scribed : one from eastern temperate Asia, and the following 

 from North America. The name is from yu^?;, the moon, and 

 o-TTsp/^a^ a seed, from the crescent-shaped carpels. 



1. M. Canadense. Moonseed. Leaves large, reniform, pel- 

 tate. Flowers small and inconspicuous. This shrub is valu- 

 able only for its large handsome foliage, for covering bowers, 

 etc. M. Carolinianum is a variety with lobed leaves. 



ORDER VI. BEKBERIDEJE. 



Herbs, or erect or climbing shrubs. Leaves alternate, or 

 fascicled from the non-development of the branches, simple or 

 compound, often spinose or reduced to spines. Flowers terminal 

 or axillary, usually racemose, often yellow. Sepals and petals 

 similar, in 2 or more series. Stamens 4 to 8, opposite the 

 petals ; anthers opening by valves or slits. Carpel solitary or 

 3 to 9, 1 -celled; stigma usually peltate ; ovules 2 or more, basal 

 or on the ventral suture, anatropous, raphe ventral. Fruit a 

 berry or capsule ; seeds albuminous. An order of about 100 

 species, inhabiting the temperate regions of both hemispheres 

 and the mountains of the tropics. Absent from South Africa 

 and Australasia. Astringent properties. This order furnishes 

 many beautiful hardy shrubs, notably Berberis Darwinii and 

 Japonica. 



1. BERBERIS. 



Erect or trailing spiny shrubs with yellow wood. Leaves 

 simple or compound, often with spinose teeth, sometimes 



