CHAPTER IX 



VINES AXD SHRUBS 



Our native vines and shrubs may be easily identified from 

 the following descriptions. Some perennial herbs are in- 

 cluded in the list, plants without woody stems, which there- 

 fore die down every year, but whose roots continue to live 

 through the winter and send up new stems in the spring. 

 These often have the appearance of true shrubs. An herb 

 dies down, stem and root, to the ground every year, and 

 must be reproduced from seed. A shrub has woody stems 

 and does not in any part of it die down every year. 



GREEN, GREENISH, OR GREENISH WHITE 



Green Brier. Cat Brier. Horse Brier 



SrriUax rotundifdlia. — Family, Smilax. Color, greenish. Flow- 

 ers, of 2 sorts, the staminate bell-shaped, with a 6-divided peri- 

 anth and 6 stamens; pistillate, with i to 3 stigmas and a 3 -celled 

 ovary. Fruit, a round, black, 1 to 3 -seeded berry. Leaves, 

 nearly round, sharply pointed, 5-nerved, thin at first, becoming 

 thick and shining, alternate, petioled. April to June. 



The stems of this vicious vine are square, 4-angled, covered 

 with stout prickles which turn backward. Occasionally the 

 thorns are wanting. The plant climbs by means of tendrils 

 at the base of the leaf-petioles. If a cat brier bars one's way, 

 it is best to turn aside. Some plants are uncompromising, 

 and this is one of them. 



Woods, New England to Florida, west to Texas and north- 

 ward to Minnesota. 



S. hispida. — In this species the upper part of the stem is cov- 

 ered with very many slender, straight, fine prickles. Leaves, much 

 like the last, but more heart - shape at base, 7 -nerved, with 



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