The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 42

2. RHaMNUS, Tourn. BUCKTHORN.

Calyx 4--5-cleft; the tube campanulate, lined with the disk. Petals small, short-clawed, notched at the end, wrapped around the short stamens, or sometimes none. Ovary free, 2--4-celled. Drupe berry-like (black), containing 2--4 separate seed-like nutlets, of cartilaginous texture.--Shrubs or small trees, with loosely pinnately veined leaves, and greenish polygamous or dicious flowers, in axillary cl.u.s.ters. (The ancient Greek name.)

-- 1. RHAMNUS proper. _Flowers usually dicious; nutlets and seeds deeply grooved on the back; rhaphe dorsal; cotyledons foliaceous, the margins revolute._

[*] _Calyx-lobes and stamens 5; petals wanting._

1. R. alniflia, L'Her. A low shrub; leaves oval, acute, serrate, nearly straight-veined; fruit 3-seeded.--Swamps, Maine to Penn., Neb., and northward. June.

[*][*] _Calyx-lobes, petals, and stamens 4._

R. CATHaRTICA, L. (COMMON BUCKTHORN.) _Leaves ovate_, minutely serrate; _fruit 3--4-seeded_; branchlets th.o.r.n.y.--Cultivated for hedges; sparingly naturalized eastward. May, June. (Nat. from Eu.)

2. R. lanceolata, Pursh. _Leaves oblong-lanceolate_ and acute, or on flowering shoots oblong and obtuse, finely serrulate, smooth or minutely downy beneath; petals deeply notched; _fruit 2-seeded_.--Hills and river-banks, Penn. (Mercersburg, _Green_) to Ill., Tenn., and westward.

May.--Shrub tall, not th.o.r.n.y; the yellowish-green flowers of two forms on distinct plants, both perfect; one with short pedicels cl.u.s.tered in the axils and with a short included style; the other with pedicels oftener solitary, the style longer and exserted.

-- 2. FRaNGULA. _Flowers perfect; nutlets and seeds not furrowed; cotyledons flat, thick; rhaphe lateral._

3. R. Caroliniana, Walt. Thornless shrub or small tree; leaves (3--5'

long) oblong, obscurely serrulate, nearly glabrous, deciduous; flowers 5-merous, in one form umbelled, in another solitary in the axils, short peduncled; drupe globose, 3-seeded. (Frangula Caroliniana, _Gray._)--Swamps and river banks, N. J., Va. to Ky., and southward.

June.

3. CEANOTHUS, L. NEW JERSEY TEA. RED-ROOT.

Calyx 5-lobed, incurved; the lower part cohering with the thick disk to the ovary, the upper separating across in fruit. Petals hooded, spreading, on slender claws longer than the calyx. Filaments elongated.

Fruit 3-lobed, dry and splitting into its 3 carpels when ripe. Seed as in -- Frangula.--Shrubby plants; flowers in little umbel-like cl.u.s.ters, forming dense panicles or corymbs at the summit of naked flower-branches; calyx and pedicels colored like the petals. (An obscure name in Theophrastus, probably misspelled.)

1. C. America.n.u.s, L. (NEW JERSEY TEA.) Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, 3-ribbed, serrate, more or less p.u.b.escent, often slightly heart-shaped at base; common peduncles elongated.--Dry woodlands. July.--Stems 1--3 high from a dark red root; branches downy. Flowers in pretty white cl.u.s.ters, on leafy shoots of the same year. The leaves were used for tea during the American Revolution.

2. C. ovatus, Desf. Leaves narrowly oval or elliptical-lanceolate, finely glandular-serrate, glabrous or nearly so, as well as the short common peduncles. (C. ovalis, _Bigel._)--Dry rocks, W. Vt. and Ma.s.s. to Minn., Ill., and southwestward; rare eastward. May.

ORDER 28. VITaCEae. (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. Filaments slender; anthers introrse. Pistil with a short style or none, and a slightly 2-lobed stigma; ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect anatropous ovules from the base of each cell. Seeds bony, with a minute embryo at the base of the hard alb.u.men, which is grooved on one side.--Stipules deciduous. Leaves alternate, palmately veined or compound; tendrils and flower-cl.u.s.ters opposite the leaves. Flowers small, greenish, commonly polygamous. (Young shoots, foliage, etc., acid.)

[*] Ovary surrounded by a nectariferous or glanduliferous disk; plants climbing by the coiling of naked-tipped tendrils.

1. Vitis. Corolla caducous without expanding. Hypogynous glands 5, alternate with the stamens. Fruit pulpy. Leaves simple.

2. Cissus. Corolla expanding. Disk cupular. Berry with scanty pulp, inedible. Leaves simple or pinnately compound.

[*][*] No distinct hypogynous disk; plants climbing by the adhesion of the dilated tips of the tendril-branches.

3. Ampelopsis. Corolla expanding. Leaves digitate.

1. VTIS, Tourn. GRAPE.

Flowers polygamo-dicious (some plants with perfect flowers, others staminate with at most a rudimentary ovary), 5-merous. Calyx very short, usually with a nearly entire border or none at all. Petals separating only at base and falling off without expanding. Hypogynous disk of 5 nectariferous glands alternate with the stamens. Berry pulpy.

Seeds pyriform, with beak-like base.--Plants climbing by the coiling of naked-tipped tendrils. Flowers in a compound thyrse, very fragrant; pedicels mostly umbellate-cl.u.s.tered. Leaves simple, rounded and heart-shaped. (The cla.s.sical Latin name.)

-- 1. VITIS proper. _Bark loose and shreddy; tendrils forked; nodes solid._

[+] _A tendril (or inflorescence) opposite each leaf._

1. V. Labrusca, L. (NORTHERN FOX-GRAPE.) Branchlets and young leaves very woolly; leaves large, entire or deeply lobed, slightly dentate, continuing rusty-woolly beneath; fertile panicles compact; berries large.--Moist thickets, N. Eng. to the Alleghany Mountains, and south to S. Car. 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.

[+][+] _Tendrils intermittent (none opposite each third leaf)._

[++] _Leaves p.u.b.escent and floccose, especially beneath and when young._

2. V. aestivalis, Michx. (SUMMER GRAPE.) Branchlets terete; leaves large, entire or more or less deeply and obtusely 3--5-lobed, with short broad teeth, very woolly and mostly red or rusty when young; berries middle-sized, black with a bloom, in compact bunches.--Thickets; common.

May, June. Berries pleasant, ripe in Sept.--V. BICOLOR, LeConte, has its leaves smoothish when old and pale or glaucous beneath; common north and westward.

3. V. cinerea, Engelm. (DOWNY GRAPE.) Branchlets angular; p.u.b.escence whitish or grayish, persistent; leaves entire or slightly 3-lobed; inflorescence large and loose; berries small, black without bloom.--Central Ill. to Kan. and Tex.

[++][++] _Leaves glabrous and mostly s.h.i.+ning, or short-hairy especially on the ribs beneath, incisely lobed or undivided._

4. V. cordiflia, Michx. (FROST or CHICKEN GRAPE.) Leaves 3--4' wide, not lobed or slightly 3-lobed, cordate with a deep acute sinus, ac.u.minate, coa.r.s.ely and sharply toothed; stipules small; inflorescence ample, loose; berries small, black and s.h.i.+ning, very acerb, ripening after frosts; seeds 1 or 2, rather large, with a prominent rhaphe.--Thickets and stream-banks, New Eng. to central Ill., Mo., Neb., and southward. May, June.

5. V. riparia, Michx. Differing from the last in the larger and more persistent stipules (2--3" long), more s.h.i.+ning and more usually 3-lobed leaves with a broad rounded or truncate sinus and large acute or ac.u.minate teeth, smaller compact inflorescence, and berries (4--5"

broad) with a bloom, sweet and very juicy, ripening from July to Sept.; seeds very small; rhaphe indistinct. (V. cordifolia, var. riparia, _Gray._)--Stream-banks or near water, W. New Eng. to Penn., west to Minn. and Kan. Eastward the berries are sour and ripen late.

6. V. palmata, Vahl. Branches bright red; leaves dark green and dull, 3--5-lobed, with a broad sinus, the lobes usually long-ac.u.minate; inflorescence large and loose; berries black, without bloom, ripening late; seeds very large and rounded; otherwise like n. 5. (V. rubra, _Michx._)--Ill. and Mo.

7. V. rupestris, Scheele. (SAND or SUGAR GRAPE.) Usually low and bushy, often without tendrils; leaves rather small, s.h.i.+ning, broadly cordate, abruptly pointed, with broad coa.r.s.e teeth, rarely slightly lobed; berries rather small, sweet, in very small close bunches, ripe in Aug.--Mo. to Tex.; also found in Tenn., and reported from banks of the Potomac, near Was.h.i.+ngton.

-- 2. MUSCADiNIA. _Bark closely adherent on the branches; pith continuous through the nodes; tendrils simple, intermittent; seeds with transverse wrinkles on both sides._

8. V. rotundiflia, Michx. (MUSCADINE, BULLACE, or SOUTHERN FOX-GRAPE.) Leaves s.h.i.+ning both sides, small, rounded with a heart-shaped base, very coa.r.s.ely toothed with broad and bluntish teeth, seldom lobed; panicles small, densely flowered; berries large (--' in diameter), musky, purplish without a bloom, with a thick and tough skin, ripe early in autumn. (V. vulpina, _Man._, not _L._?)--River-banks, Md. to Ky., Mo., Kan., and southward. May.--Branchlets minutely warty. This is the original of the Scuppernong Grape, etc.

2. CiSSUS, L.

Flowers perfect or sometimes polygamous, 4-merous or (in ours) 5-merous. Petals expanding. Disk cup-shaped, surrounding the base of the ovary. Berry inedible, with scanty pulp. Seeds usually triangular-obovate.--Tendrils in our species few and mostly in the inflorescence. A vast genus, mainly tropical. (Greek name of the Ivy.)

1. C. Ampelopsis, Pers. Nearly glabrous; _leaves heart-shaped_ or truncate at the base, coa.r.s.ely and sharply toothed, ac.u.minate, not lobed; panicle small and loose; style slender; berries of the size of a pea, 1--3-seeded, bluish or greenish. (Vitis indivisa, _Willd._)--River-banks, Va. to Ill., and southward. June.

2. C. stans, Pers. Nearly glabrous, bushy and rather upright; _leaves twice pinnate or ternate_, the leaflets cut-toothed; flowers cymose; calyx 5-toothed; disk very thick, adherent to the ovary; berries black, obovate. (Vitis bipinnata, _Torr. & Gray._)--Rich soils, Va. to Mo., and southward.

3. AMPELoPSIS, Michx. VIRGINIAN CREEPER.

Calyx slightly 5-toothed. Petals concave, thick, expanding before they fall. Disk none.--Leaves digitate, with 5 (3--7) oblong-lanceolate sparingly serrate leaflets. Flower-cl.u.s.ters cymose. Tendrils fixing themselves to trunks or walls by dilated sucker-like disks at their tips. (Name from ?pe???, _a vine_, and ????, _appearance_.)

1. A. quinqueflia, Michx. A common woody vine, in low or rich grounds, climbing extensively, sometimes by rootlets as well as by its disk-bearing tendrils, blossoming in July, ripening its small blackish berries in October. Also called _American Ivy_, and still less appropriately, _Woodbine_. Leaves turning bright crimson in autumn.