94 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[ Yiniferce. 
and Eastern Australia, not occurring spontaneously in Europe. Nodes of the stems 
and branches tumid. Leaves alternate, much less commonly opposite, simple or com¬ 
pound, always stalked. Stipules persistent, deciduous or obliterated. Tendrils very 
generally developed, as well as the peduncles opposite to the leaves, rarely axillary. 
Inflorescence often paniculate. Pedicels frequently umbellulate and at the base free- 
bracteolate. Mowers hermaphrodite, rarely polygamous, almost always small. Color 
of petals various. Berry often acidulous, sometimes acrid.— Hindi. Gen. 796; Hindi. 
Veg. Kingdom , ed. iii. 439. 
Viniferae approach amongst Thalamiflorse to Meliacese and Sapindacese, amongst 
Calyciflorae to Araliaceae. 
VITIS. 
Linne, Gen. Plant. 284. 
Calyx truncate or minutely toothed. Petals 4-5, rarely 6 , with an indexed margin and apex, 
free or at the summit coherent. Stamens 4-5, rarely 6 . Filaments capillary, straight. Anthers free, 
introrse. Ovary two-celled , with two collateral ovules at the base of each cell. Disk girt at the base 
by a ring. Style short or none. Stigma simple or short-lobed. Berry two-celled or by the obliteration 
of the dissepiment one-celled. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell. Testa hard. Endopleura penetrating into 
the folds and winkles of the nucleus. 
Shrubs, or sometimes trees, rarely suffruticose plants, glabrous or more or less clothed with 
downs or hair, producing in almost all instances climbing branches, which are articulated at the joints, 
and provided in most cases with evergreen foliage, found within the intratropical and subtropical zone 
of both hemispheres, and in some of the countries with a milder temperate clime. Boot sometimes 
thick cylindrical and fleshy. Petioles articulated with the branches. Leaves herbaceous or coriaceous, 
alternate, simple, and then entire, toothed, lobed or dissected, or with leaflets disposed in a digitate 
or pedate or impari-pinnate or bipinnate arrangement, sometimes pellucidly dotted and of acidulous 
or acrid taste. Tendrils simple or divided. Flowers hermaphrodite, sometimes polygamous or dioecious, 
generally paniculate, with umbellate or fasciculate pedicels. Petals often greenish, sometimes yellow 
or black-purplish, always smalL Stamens deciduous, longer or shorter than the corolla. Berry often 
black, dark-blue or purplish.— Wight & Arnott, Prodr. Flor. Penins. Ind. Or. i. 124; Gray &Spmg. 
Gen. FI. Amer. Bor. Or. 1. 161; Cissus, Linne, Gen. 147; Ampelopsis, Rich, in Michaux Flor. Boreal 
Americ. i. 159. 
The kinds of Vitis hitherto known from Australia amount to twelve species, to which future 
researches in North-Eastern Australia are likely to add. All, with the exception of Vitis angustissima 
from subtropical Western Australia, Vitis acetosa (Cissus acetosa, F. M. Transact. Phil. Instit. Viet. iii. 
24, a suffruticose not climbing acid plant), V. psoralifolia, and a species allied to V. adnata, from Arn¬ 
hem's Land, are inhabitants of the eastern tracts of Australia, where a few ascend to the mountains of 
New England, whilst Vitis clematidea extends from New England through Eastern Australia to Arn¬ 
hem's Land. The Indian Leea sambucifolia is by Dr. J. Hooker recognized amongst Australian plants. 
It occurs on the islands of Lord Howick's Group. 
Vitis bypoglauca. —Cissus hypoglauca, Asa Gray in Willi. Unit. Stat. Explor. Fxped. Bot. 
272 ; Cissus Australasica, F. M. in Transact of the Phil. Soc. Viet. i. 8. 
