XL. THE MAGNOLIA FAMILY. 
OX 
cto 
Or 
MOONSEED. MENISPERMUM. UL. 
Climbing shrubs of North America and Central Asia, with 
alternate, peltate, or heart-shaped, smooth, entire leaves, and 
small, yellowish flowers in axillary or supra-axillary racemes. 
The male flowers have 4 to 12 sepals im two to four rows, as 
many petals or none, and 10 to 30 distinct stamens with 4-lobed 
anthers; the female flowers, somewhat larger, 4 to 6 sepals in 
two rows, as many petals, and 2 to 4, 1-celled ovaries. The 
drupes are solitary, or in twos or fours. 
CanaDA Moonseep. MM. Canadénse. IL. 
A twining plant, with a smooth, woody stem, eight to twelve 
feet long, climbing over shrubs, on the banks of rivers and in 
thickets. The leaves are peltate or shield-like, three or four 
inches long, and rather broader, with 3 to 5 angular lobes, with 
the leaf-stem, which is one or two inches long, mserted near the 
base, bright green above, pale and very strongly nerved beneath. 
The flowers are greenish-yellow, in small racemes, which come 
out a little above the axil of a leaf. The fruit is a drupe, nearly 
black when mature, and containing a lunate nut. 
FAMILY XL. THE MAGNOLIA FAMILY. MAGNOLIA CEL. 
JUSSIED. 
This family comprehends about fifty species of trees and shrubs, 
among which are many of the most magnificent of the vegetable 
kingdom. 'They abound in tropical Asia and the warmer parts 
of North America. This State is their most northern limit. 
Advancing southward, they become more numerous, and reach 
their highest perfection in the Southern and Southwestern States. 
A few are found in the West Indies and in South America, and 
in Japan, China, New Zealand and New Holland. ‘Their leaves 
are large and showy, alternate, simple, coriaceous, mostly very 
entire, dotted most frequently with pellucid dots, and, before 
