The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. Asa Gray
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. cinèrea, Engelm. (Downy Grape.) Branchlets angular; pubescence 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 shining, or short-hairy especially on the ribs beneath, incisely lobed or undivided.
4. V. cordifòlia, Michx. (Frost or Chicken Grape.) Leaves 3–4´ wide, not lobed or slightly 3-lobed, cordate with a deep acute sinus, acuminate, coarsely and sharply toothed; stipules small; inflorescence ample, loose; berries small, black and shining, 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. ripària, Michx. Differing from the last in the larger and more persistent stipules (2–3´´ long), more shining and more usually 3-lobed leaves with a broad rounded or truncate sinus and large acute or acuminate 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. palmàta, Vahl. Branches bright red; leaves dark green and dull, 3–5-lobed, with a broad sinus, the lobes usually long-acuminate; 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. rupéstris, Scheele. (Sand or Sugar Grape.) Usually low and bushy, often without tendrils; leaves rather small, shining, broadly cordate, abruptly pointed, with broad coarse 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 Washington.
§ 2. MUSCADÍNIA. Bark closely adherent on the branches; pith continuous through the nodes; tendrils simple, intermittent; seeds with transverse wrinkles on both sides.
8. V. rotundifòlia, Michx. (Muscadine, Bullace, or Southern Fox-Grape.) Leaves shining both sides, small, rounded with a heart-shaped base, very coarsely toothed with broad and bluntish teeth, seldom lobed; panicles small, densely flowered; berries large (½–¾´ 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. CÍSSUS, 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. Ampelópsis, Pers. Nearly glabrous; leaves heart-shaped or truncate at the base, coarsely and sharply toothed, acuminate, 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. AMPELÓPSIS, 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-clusters cymose. Tendrils fixing themselves to trunks or walls by dilated sucker-like disks at their tips. (Name from ἄμπελος, a vine, and ὄψις, appearance.)
1. A. quinquefòlia, 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.
Order 29. SAPINDÀCEÆ. (Soapberry Family.)
Trees or shrubs, with simple or compound leaves, mostly unsymmetrical and often irregular flowers; the 4–5 sepals and petals imbricated in æstivation; the 5–10 stamens inserted on a fleshy (perigynous or hypogynous) disk; a 2–3-celled and -lobed ovary, with 1–2 (rarely more) ovules in each cell; and the embryo (except Staphylea) curved or convolute, without albumen.—A large and diverse order.
Suborder I. Sapindeæ. Flowers (often polygamous) mostly unsymmetrical and irregular. Stamens commonly more numerous than the petals, rarely twice as many. Ovules 1 or 2 in each cell. Embryo curved or convolute, rarely straight; cotyledons thick and fleshy.—Leaves alternate or sometimes opposite, without stipules, mostly compound.
1. Æsculus. Flowers irregular. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 4 or 5. Stamens commonly 7. Fruit a leathery 3-valved pod. Leaves opposite, digitate.
2. Sapindus. Flowers regular. Sepals 4–5, in two rows. Petals 4–5. Stamens 8–10. Fruit a globose or 2–3-lobed berry. Leaves alternate, pinnate.
Suborder II. Acerineæ. (Maple Family.) Flowers (polygamous or diœcious) small, regular, but usually unsymmetrical. Petals often wanting. Ovary 2-lobed and 2-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell. Fruits winged, 1-seeded. Embryo coiled or folded; the cotyledons long and thin.—Leaves opposite, simple or compound.
3. Acer. Flowers polygamous. Leaves simple.
4. Negundo. Flowers diœcious. Leaves pinnate, with 3–5 leaflets.
Suborder III. Staphyleæ. (Bladder-Nut Family.) Flowers (perfect) regular; stamens as many as the petals. Ovules 1–8 in each cell. Seeds bony, with a straight embryo in scanty albumen.—Shrubs with opposite pinnately compound leaves, both stipulate and stipellate.
5. Staphylea. Lobes of the colored calyx and petals 5, erect. Stamens 5. Fruit a 3-celled bladdery-inflated pod.
1. ǼSCULUS, L. Horse-chestnut. Buckeye.
Calyx tubular, 5-lobed, often oblique or gibbous at base. Petals 4–5, more or less unequal, with claws, nearly hypogynous. Stamens 7 (rarely 6 or 8); filaments long, slender, often unequal. Style 1; ovary 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Fruit a leathery pod, 3-celled and 3-seeded, or usually by abortion 1-celled and 1-seeded, loculicidally 3-valved. Seed very large, with thick shining coat, and a large round pale scar. Cotyledons very thick and fleshy, their contiguous faces coherent, remaining under ground in germination; plumule 2-leaved; radicle curved.—Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, digitate; leaflets serrate, straight-veined, like a Chestnut-leaf. Flowers in a terminal thyrse or dense panicle, often polygamous, most of them with imperfect pistils and sterile; pedicels jointed. Seeds farinaceous, but imbued with a bitter and narcotic principle. (The ancient name of some Oak or other mast-bearing tree.)
§ 1. ÆSCULUS proper. Fruit covered with prickles when young.
Æ. Hippocàstanum, L. (Common Horse-chestnut.) Corolla spreading, white spotted with purple and yellow, of 5 petals; stamens declined; leaflets 7.—Commonly planted. (Adv. from Asia via Eu.)
1. Æ. glàbra, Willd. (Fetid or Ohio Buckeye.) Stamens curved, longer than the pale yellow corolla of 4 upright petals; leaflets usually 5.—River-banks, W. Penn. to Mich., Mo., Kan., and southward. June.—A large tree; the bark exhaling an unpleasant odor,