112 VITACE^E. (VINE FAMILY.) 



§ 3. LOBADiUM, Raf. Flowers polygamo-dicecious, in clustered scaly-bracted 



spikes like catkins, preceding the leaves: disk 5-parted, large : fruit as in § 1, but 



fiatttsh: leaves 3-foliolate. (Not poisonous.) 



6. R. aromatica, Ait. (Fragrant S.) Leaves pubescent when young, 



thickish when old ; leaflets 3, rhombic-ovate, unequally cut-toothed, the middle 



one wedge-shaped at the base; flowers pale yellow. — Dry rocky soil, from 



Vermont westward and southward. April, May. — A straggling bush ; the 



crushed leaves sweet-scented. 



Oiider 27. VITACEiE. (Vine Family.) 



Shrubs with watery juice, usually climbing by tendrils, with small regular 

 flowers, a minute or truncated calyx, its limb mostly obsolete, and the stamens 

 as many as the valvate petals and opposite them ! Berry 2-celled, usually 4- 

 seeded. — Petals 4-5, very deciduous, hypogynous or perigynous. Fila- 

 ments slender : anthers introrse. Pistil with a short style or none, and a 

 slightly 2-lobed stigma : ovary 2-eelled, with 2 erect anatropous ovules 

 from the base of each cell. Seeds bony, with a minute embryo at the base 

 of the hard albumen, which is grooved on one side. — Stipules deciduous. 

 Leaves palmately veined or compound : tendrils and flower-clusters oppo- 

 site the leaves. Flowers small, greenish. (Young shoots, foliage, &c., 

 acid.) — Consists of Vitis and one or two nearly allied genera. 



1. VITIS, Tourn. Grape. 



Calyx very short, usually with a nearly entire border or none at all, filled with 

 an adnate fleshy disk which bears the petals and stamens. — Flowers in a com- 

 pound thyrsus ; pedicels mostly umbellate-clustered. (The classical Latin name.) 

 § 1. VITIS proper. Petals 5, cohering at the top, separating at the base, and so 

 the corolla usually falls off without expanding: 5 thick glands or lobes of the disk 

 alternating with the stamens : flowers polygamous or diazcious in all the American 

 species, exhaling a fragrance like that of Mignonette : leaves simple, rounded and 

 heart-shapt-d, q/len variously and variably lobed. 



* Leaves woolly beneath, when lohed having obtuse or rounded sinuses. 



1. V. Labriisca, L. (Northern Fox-Grape.) BrancUets and young 

 leaves very vjoolly ; leaves continuing rusty-woolly beneath ; fertile panicles compact ; 

 berries large. — Moist thickets : common. June. Fruit ripe in Sept. or Oct., 

 dark purple or amber-color, with a tough musky pulp. Improved by cultivation, 

 it has given rise to the Isabella, Catawba, Concord, and other varieties. 



2. V. aestivalis, Michx. (Summer Grape.) Young leaves downy with 

 loose cobwebby hairs beneath, smoothish when old, green above ; fertile panicles com- 

 pound, long and slender : berries small, black with a bloom. — Thickets : com- 

 mon. May, June. — Berries pleasant, ripe in Oct. 



* * Leaves smooth or nearly so and bright green both sides, commonly pubescent on the 

 veins beneath, either incisely lobed or undivided. 



3. V. COrdifblia, Michx. (Winter or Frost Grape.) Leaves thin. 





