YIXE FAMILY. 



81 



Panicles slender, raccmoso, on short axillary peduncles. Drupes about the size of those in 

 the preceding species, dry, smooth, and shining, pale brown. 



Woodlands and old fence-rows : Canada to Georgia, and the Rocky Mountains. Fl. 

 May-June. Fr. September. 



Obs. This species is also poisonous, — and should not only be known 

 to the farmer, but diligently expelled from his premises. There are 

 several other species of Rhus in the United States, — interesting to the 

 Botanist — as all plants are, — but not immediately so to the practical 

 Agriculturist. The Venetian Sumach (R. Cotinus) is often seen in 

 cultivation a^ an ornamental shrub. The flowers are mostly abortive 

 and the slender very hairy pedicels remain after flowering, increasing 

 in length and making large light bunches, giving such a peculiar ap- 

 pearance to the shrub that it has received the popular name of " Smoke 

 Tree." The leaves of this and other European species furnish the 

 Sumach of commerce, which is imported for use in dyeing and calico- 

 printiag and for tanning morocco leather. The leaves of E.. glabra, E,. 

 typhina acd perhaps others of our native species are used for the same 

 purposes. Doct. Darlington has in his garden, at Westchester, a re- 

 markable variety of K. glabra, in which the leaves are more or less 

 comp'etely bipinnate ; it was found in Chester County, and is worthy 

 of being propagated by the curious in such matters. # 



Order XIX. YITA'CEvE. {Vine Family.) 



Shrulhy plants, generally -with a loose stringy bark, and stems climbing by tendrils ; 

 simple or compound Zeai'&s opposite the racemes which are sometimes partly or wholly 

 changed into tendrils. Flowers mostly in compound racemes, often polygamous or 

 dioecious, small, greenish. Calyx very small, entire, or 4-5 toothed, hned with a perigy- 

 nous disk. Fetals 4-5, valvate in ajstivation, sometimes cohering by the tips, caducous. 

 Stamens as many as the petals, and opposite them. Ovary 2-celled, w^ith 2 erect collateral 

 ovules in each cell. Fruit a berry. Seeds with a bony testa; embryo much shorter than 

 the horny or fleshy albumen. 



1. YI'TIS, L. Grape. 



[The ancient Latin name of the vine.] 



Calyx obsoletely 5-toothed, lined with a fleshy disk which bears the 

 stamens and pistils. Petals 5, cohering at apex and speedily falling off 

 (pushed off by the stamens). Stigma subsessile, obtuse. Berry 2-3- 

 celled, 4-seeded, — some of the cells and seeds often abortive. Perennial 

 climbing shrubs. 



* Flowers perfect ( Foreign species ) 

 1. V. vlvif'era, L. Leaves lobed, sinuate-dentate, glabrous or to- 

 mcntose ; fruit of various sizes and colors. 

 WiNE-PRODUciNG YiTis. Wine Grape. Foreign Grape, &c. 

 Fr. La Yigne. Germ. Der Weinstock. Span. La Yid. 



stem 10-20 feet or more in length (but usually kept shorter by lopping.) Leaves more 

 or less lobed and dentate, generally smaller than in our native spr-cies, sometimes very 

 glabrous and shining. Berries often large, of various forms and colors. 



Cultivated. Native of Southern Asia, Fl. }\mQ. JV. August -September. 



Obs. Many varieties (with names as numerous) of this plant have been 



