_Woody climbers, with palmate or peltate alternate leaves, no stipules, the sepals and petals similar, in three or more rows, imbricated in the bud; hypogynous, diœcious, 3--6-gynous; fruit a 1-seeded drupe, with a large or long curved embryo in scanty albumen._--Flowers small. Stamens several. Ovaries nearly straight, with the stigma at the apex, but often incurved in fruiting, so that the seed and embryo are bent into a crescent or ring.--Chiefly a tropical family. [*] Sepals and petals present. Anthers 4-celled. Seed incurved. 1. Cocculus. Stamens, petals, and sepals each 6. 2. Menispermum. Stamens 12--24, slender. Petals 6--8. [*][*] Petals none. Anthers 2-celled. Seed saucer-shaped. 3. Calycocarpum. Stamens in the sterile flowers 12; in the fertile flowers 6, abortive. 1. CÓCCULUS, DC. Sepals, petals, and stamens 6, alternating in threes, the two latter short. Anthers 4-celled. Pistils 3--6 in the fertile flowers; style pointed. Drupe and seed as in Menispermum.--Flowers in axillary racemes or panicles. (An old name, a diminutive of _coccus_, κόκκος, a berry.) 1. C. Carolìnus, DC. Minutely pubescent; leaves downy beneath, ovate or cordate, entire or sinuately or hastately lobed, variable in shape; flowers greenish, the petals in the sterile ones auriculate-inflexed below around the filaments; drupe red (as large as a small pea).--River-banks, Va. to S. Ill., Kan., and southward. July, Aug. 2. MENISPÉRMUM, L. MOONSEED. Sepals 4--8. Petals 6--8, short. Stamens 12--24 in the sterile flowers, as long as the sepals; anthers 4-celled. Pistils 2--4 in the fertile flowers, raised on a short common receptacle; stigma broad and flat. Drupe globular, the mark of the stigma near the base, the ovary in its growth after flowering being strongly incurved, so that the (wrinkled and grooved) laterally flattened stone takes the form of a large crescent or ring. The slender embryo therefore is horseshoe-shaped; cotyledons filiform.--Flowers white, in small and loose axillary panicles. (Name from μήνη, _moon_, and σπέρμα, _seed_.) 1. M. Canadénse, L. Leaves peltate near the edge, 3--7-angled or lobed.--Banks of streams; common. June, July.--Drupes black with a bloom, ripe in September, looking like frost grapes. 3. CALYCOCÁRPUM, Nutt. CUPSEED. Sepals 6, petaloid. Petals none. Stamens 12 in the sterile flowers, short; anthers 2-celled. Pistils 3, spindle-shaped, tipped with a radiate many-cleft stigma. Drupe globular; the thin crustaceous putamen hollowed out like a cup on one side. Embryo foliaceous, heart-shaped.--Flowers greenish-white, in long racemose panicles. (Name from κάλυξ, _a cup_, and καρπός, _fruit_.) 1. C. Lyòni, Nutt. Leaves large, thin, deeply 3--5-lobed, cordate at the base; the lobes acuminate; drupe an inch long, black when ripe; the shell crested-toothed on the edge of the cavity.--Rich soil, Ky. to S. Ill. and Kan., and southward. May.--Stems climbing to the tops of trees. ORDER 5. BERBERIDÀCEÆ. (BARBERRY FAMILY.)