DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 145 



1. C. americanus, L. New Jersey Tea, Red Root. Shrub, 

 with, many branching steins, 1-3 ft. high, from a deep red root. 

 LeaTes 1-3 in. long, ovate or nearly so, acute or taper-pointed at the 

 tip, obtuse or somewhat heart-shaped at the base, downy beneath, 

 serrate, 3-nerved. Flowers small, white. 



62. VITACEiE. Vine Family. 



Shrubs, with the stem swollen at the insertion of the peti- 

 oles and climbing by tendrils borne opposite the leaves. 

 Leaves alternate, with stipules simple or compound. Flowers 

 small, greenish, generally in clusters, borne in similar posi- 

 tions to the tendrils, hypogynous or nearly so. Sepals, petals, 

 and stamens 4-5. Carpels 2, each 2-ovuled. Calyx very 

 small. Corolla deciduous, the petals often hooded. Staniens 

 opposite the petals. A disk inside the calyx bears nectar and 

 its lobes alternate with the stamens. Fruit a berry. 



I. VITIS, Toum. 



Climbing woody vines ; stems with tumid joints, climbing 

 by tendrils opposite some of the leaves. Leaves simple, 

 palmately veined or lobed ; stipules small, soon deciduous. 

 Flowers mostly somewhat monoecious or dioecious. Petals 

 often united at the apex and not expanding. Stamens in- 

 serted between the lobes of the disk. Ovary usually 2-celled, 

 4-OTuled. Fruit juicy, 1-4-seeded.* 



1. V. labrusca, L. Fox Grape. Stems climbing high, often 

 1 ft. or more in diameter ; bark shreddy, coming off in long strips, 

 young branches woolly. Leaves broadly heart-shaped, more or less 

 deeply 8-5-lobed, mucronate-dentate, very woolly when young, 

 becoming smooth above. Panicles of pistillate flowers compact, of 

 staminate flowers looser. Fruit about ^ in. in diameter, dark pur- 

 ple or sometimes nearly white. In rich woods E., S., and SW. Many 

 of the cultivated varieties, Concord, Niagara, etc., have been devel- 

 oped from this species.* 



2. V. aestivalis, Michx. Summer Grape. Stem climbing high ; 

 bark shreddy. Leaves broadly heart-shaped, 3-5-lobed, the lobes 

 dentate, notches rounded, white-wooUy when young, often nearly 

 smooth when old ; tendrils or panicles opposite 2 out of every 3 



