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. VÌTIS, Tourn. Grape.
Flowers polygamo-diœcious (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-clustered. Leaves simple, rounded and heart-shaped. (The classical Latin name.)
§ 1. VITIS proper. Bark loose and shreddy; tendrils forked; nodes solid.
[+] A tendril (or inflorescence) opposite each leaf.
1. V. Labrúsca, 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).