27gi jixxix. AmpelIde^. 



Order XXXIX. AMPELIDE^. 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual. Calyx small, entire or 4 or 

 5-toothed. Petals 4 or 5, free or cohering, valvate in the bud. Stamens 4 or 5, 

 opposite the petals, inserted on the outside of the disk at its base or between its 

 lobes. Disk free or adnate to the ovary. Ovary usually immersed in or sur- 

 rounded by the disk, more or less perfectly 2 to 6-celled ; style short and conical 

 or subulate, or none ; stigma small, capitate or lobed. Ovules 2 in each cell 

 where there are 2 cells, solitary where there are more cells, erect, anatropous, 

 with a ventral raphe. Fruit a berry, the dissepiments frequently disappearing. 

 Seeds 1 to 6 ; testa hard, the inner coating frequently penetrating into the 

 fissures of the ruminate albumen. Embryo short, in the base of the albumen ; 

 cotyledons oval ; radicle short, inferior. — Woody climbers or rarely erect shrubs 

 or small trees. Branches often articulate. Leaves alternate or the lower ones 

 opposite, simple or compound, the petiole usually articulate with the stem and 

 expanded into a membranous stipule. Flowers small, in little umbels, cymes, 

 racemes, or spikes, arranged in leaf-opposed, cymose, thyrsoid, or elongated 

 panicles. 



The Order, almost or quite limited to the two following genera, is widely dispersed over the 

 tropical and warm regions of the globe, more abundant in the Old World than in America, and 

 the smaller genus confined to the Old World. It is very nearly allied to Celastrinea, and 

 especially to Rkamnete, from which it differs in habit, in the more developed petals, in the 

 baccate fruit, and in the smallness of the embryo. — Benth. 



Stamens free. Ovary 2-oelled with 2 ovules in each cell. Woody climbers, with 



tendrils 1. Vms. 



Stamens and petals connate with the disk. Ovary 3 to 6-ceUed with 1 ovule in each 

 cell. Erect, without tendrils 2. Leea. 



1. VITIS, Linn. 



(An ancient name of the Grape vine.) 



{Cissus, Linn.) 



Petals free or cohering at the tips, and falling off together. Stamens inserted 



round the base of the short, annular, or lobed disk. Ovary 2-celled (sometimes 



imperfectly so), with 2 ovules in each cell. — Woody climbers or rarely bushy 



shrubs, with leaf-opposed tendrils (abortive inflorescences). Leaves simple or 



compound, sometimes marked with pellucid dots. Panicles in the Australian 



species cymose or rarely reduced to solitary umbels. Petals very concave, almost 



hood-shaped, but without the dorsal appendages of some Asiatic species. 



The genus comprises nearly the whole of the Order, extending over the whole of its 

 geographical area. The Australian species appear tolerably constant in the division of their 

 leaves, but that character is not to be absolutely relied on, for the trifoliolate. digitate, and 

 pedate forms will occasionally pass one into the other. — Benth. 



Leaves simpU. 

 Leaves ovate, penniveined, or 3-nerved at the base, rather fleshy. 

 Leaves shortly acuminate, mostly toothed. Berries globular. Tall, 



woody climbers 1. V. antarctica. 



Leaves very obtuse, quite entire. Berries obovoid. Bushy tree . . 2. V. oblonga. 

 Leaves broad-cordate, 5-nerved, membranous. 

 Branches glaucous. Veinlets reticulate, not prominent. Mowers at 



least 1 line diameter . . . . . Z. V. cordata. 



Not glaucous. Veinlets transverse. Flowers not J line diameter . . . i. V. adnata. 

 Leaflets 3. 

 Leaflets ovate, rather thick and firm, shining. Cymes nearly globular, on 



very short peduncle?. Stigma very broad 5; F. nitens. 



Leaflets thin-coriaceous, ovate-acuminate, 2 to 4in. long. Panicle 



repeatedly trichotomous-puberulent ... 6. F. brachypoda. 



