Cocculus
(from coccus, the systematic name of cochineal, applied to this genus on account of the greater part of the species bearing scarlet berries). SYN. Wend-landia. ORD. Menispermaceoe. A genus of stove, green-house, or hardy evergreen climbing or twining shrubs. Cymes or panicles axillary; those bearing the male flowers usually many-flowered; those bearing the female ones few-flowered. Leaves ovate or oblong, entire, rarely lobed. They thrive well in a mixture of loam and peat. Cuttings of half-ripened side shoots will root easily in spring or summer, if planted in sand and placed in bottom heat, under a bell glass.
C. carolinus (Carolina). fl. greenish, in axillary racemes or panicles. July. l. downy beneath, ovate or cordate, entire or sinuate-lobed. h. 20ft. United States. Plant minutely pubescent. Hardy.
C. laurifolius (Laurel-leaved). fl. white, green, small; peduncles lateral and axillary, branched at the top, rather shorter than the petioles. January. l. oblong, acuminated, smooth, shiny. Sub-tropical Himalayas, 1820. An ornamental shrub, with bright green leaves, remarkable for being a compact bush, whilst nearly all the other species are twiners. Half-hardy. C. Thunbergii (Thunberg's). fl. axillary, panicled. l. ovate, obtuse, with a point, under surface villous; lower leaves some-what triangular, upper ones orbicular. Japan. Hardy.