466 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
CHAPTER VI. 
PLANTS WITH MANY PETALS, WHICH GROW, TOGETHER WITH THE STA-~ 
MENS, ABOUT OR UPON A DISK SURROUNDING THE SEED-VESSEL. 
FAMILY XXX. THE VINE FAMILY. VITA‘CEZ, Jussinv. 
Tue Vines are trailing or climbing shrubs, with swollen, sepa- 
rable joints, and alternate leaves with stipules. On the side of 
the stem opposite the leaves, spring the footstalks which bear 
the clusters of flowers. When the flowers are abortive, the 
footstalk is changed into a tendril; and tendrils opposite the 
leaves are peculiar to this family. The flowers are small, 
greenish, and commonly perfect; calyx minute, nearly entire, 
5-toothed; petals 5, distinct, caducous; stamens as many as 
the petals and opposite them, inserted on the surface of the 
disk; ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect ovules side by side in each 
cell; style short or wanting; stigma simple. Fruit a round, 
pulpy berry, with 1 or more cells and 1 or more seeds. Seeds 
erect, with a bony shell. Embryo straight, short; cotyledons 
flat, lanceolate; radicle inferior—(Flore Francaise, V, 857.) 
Plants of this family have acid properties and yield sugar. 
They are found in the woods of the milder and hotter parts of 
both hemispheres. There are two genera in this State: 1, 
the Grape Vine, Vitis, with entire leaves; and 2, the Virginian 
Creeper, Ampelépsis, with leaves divided into five parts. 
XXX. 1. THE GRAPE VINE. VITTS. L. 
This is a small genus, thus characterized: Calyx nearly en- 
tire; petals 5, commonly united at the apex, but distinct at 
base and falling off like a cap; stamens 5; style short, coni- 
cal, stigma dilated. Peduncles sometimes changed into ten- 
drils. Flowers, in the North American species, perfect or con- 
taining only stamens, or only pistils, on the same or different 
plants. 
