Veniilaffo.] XXV. EHAMNE^. 97 



forming a flat disc at the base; wing linear, 1-2 in. long, glabrous, 

 shining. 



South India, Ceylon, Burma, Ind. Archipelago. Fl. C.S. Cordage made of the 

 hark. The root of this or the preceding species is collected and used as a red dye 

 in Mysore, Salem, and Bellary (vem. Popli-chuleay, Mysore), Buchanan i. 168. 



Oedbe XXVI. AMPELIDE^. 



Shrubs, erect or climbing; leaves alternate, petiolate, simple or com- 

 pound. Flowers regular,' small, in cymose panicles, racemes or spikes, 

 "terminal or leaf-opposed. Calyx small, entire, 4-5-dentat6 or -lobed. 

 Petals 4 or 5, hypogynous, small, valvate in the bud, distinct or cohering 

 at the base or at the top. Stamens as many as and opposite to the petals, 

 hyjpogynous, free and distinct or monadelphous. Ovary 2-6-celled, 

 with 2 erect collateral ovules, or a single ovule in each cell. Style simple, 

 often very short, or stigma sessile. Fruit a berry, with 1 or few bony 

 seeds. Embryo very small, in the base of a copious albumen. — Gen. 

 PI. i. 386 ; Eoyle lU. 144 ; Wight 111. i. 149. 



Woody or herbaceous climbers ; filaments free ; ovary 2-oelled . . 1. ViTis. 

 Erect shrubs or large herbs ; filaments united in a tube ; ovary 3-6 celled 2. Leba. 



1. VITIS, Linn. 

 Vines, branchlets tumid at the nodes. Tendrils and peduncles generally 

 leaf-opposed, tendrils rarely wanting. Leaves alternate, or the lowest 

 opposite, entire palmately lobed or compound ; leaflets pedate, terhate, or 

 quinate. Stipules membranous, deciduous. Flowers numerous, cymose. 

 Inside of calyx filled with a fleshy torus, which expands around the base 

 of the ovary into a 4-5-lobed hypogynous disc. Petals 5 or 4, inserted 

 under the edge of the disc, their summits frequently induplicate and 

 slightly cohering, when the whole corolla, lifted up by the stamens, 

 separates from the base, and falls away together ; sometimes expanding in 

 the ordinary way, early deciduous. Stamens free, inserted with the petals ; 

 filaments distinct ; anthers cordate-ovate, fixed near the middle, 2-cened, 

 the cells opening longitudinally. Ovary -sessile, 2-celled, its base sur- 

 rounded by the fleshy, disc. Fruit a 2-celled (or by abortion 1 -celled) 

 globular berry, the cells 2-seeded, or by abortion 1-seeded. Seeds obo- 

 void, the membranous testa covering a thick, bony, inner integument. 

 Albumen cartilaginous-fleshy. 



Numerous climbers in the Indian forest belong to this genus. It must here 

 suffice to enumerate a few of the larger ones in North and Central India. Few 

 Indian genera demand more study on the spot, and the following arrangement 

 is by no means satisfactory : — 

 Leaves simple ; fl. pentamerous, in thyrsoid panicles. 

 Branches glabrous or with deciduous tomentum ; leaves 

 suborbicular. 

 Panicles leaf-opposed, occasionally oirrbiferous ; fl. 



green ; petals cohering 1. V. vinifera. 



Panicles on leaf- opposed tendrils; fl. deep reddish brown ; 



petals distinct . . 2. F. laiifolia. 



Branches glabrous ; leaves ovate, longer than broad . 3. V, parvifolia. 



G 



