[Illustration: MOONSEED VINE]
Usually twining shrubs or small trees; flowers small, unisexual and
perfect; sepals 6; petals 6, or absent; stamens 6-12; carpels 3-6; fruit
berry-like, 1-seeded.
Moonseed Vine (_Cebatha Carolina_) is a vine with clusters of small red
berries. It is very abundant throughout the state in woods and on
fences, ranging north to Kansas and Virginia. It is also called
coral-bead, margil, coral-vine, and red-berried moonseed. “Cebatha,”
from the Greek, alludes to its climbing habit, while “moonseed” refers
to the curved seed of the fleshy red berries which ripen in the fall and
remain on the vines long after the leaves have fallen. The small white
flowers bloom during the summer and fall. The leaves are quite variable,
sometimes entire and sometimes distinctly 3-lobed and rarely 5-lobed,
being smooth above and downy beneath.
The berries of the Indian moonseed contain an acrid poison which is used
by the Chinese in catching fish, as it will temporarily stun or
intoxicate the fish.