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108 PROF. GRISEBACH ON THE GENUS ABUTA. 
Notes on Abuta, a genus of Menispermee. By N. GRIsEBACH, 
Professor of Botany in the University of Göttingen. Com; 
munieated, by Dr. J. D. Hooker, F.L.S. 
[Read March 18th, 1858.] 
Tur Menispermee of tropical America, though less numerous than 
. those of the East Indies, are in a state of some confusion ; and 
when I studied the West Indian forms for my intended Flora of 
those islands, Aublet's Abuta seémed to require a particular in- 
vestigation. Miers had reduced correctly to Abuta Persoon’s 
genus Trichoa (Batschia, Thunb.), but at the same time he ex- 
cluded Abuta concolor, Poepp., which Endlicher before him had 
referred to Trichoa. From this South American species, and from 
the West Indian Cocculus domingensis, which, together with some 
other forms, he considered congeners, Miers’ constructed his new 
genus Anelasma (Ann. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. vii. p. 37 seg.). The re- 
sult of my inquiries is, however, at variance with his views, and the 
object of these remarks is to prove that Abuta is a distinct genus 
of Cocculee, comprising Aublet's and Poeppig’s species, and that 
Cocculus domingensis does not belong to the same. The character 
of Abuta, which, as Miers has well suggested, approaches most to 
the East Indian genus Tiliacora (distinct by a greater number of 
carpels), is the following :— 
Abuta, Aubl. Cuar. вем. Sepals 6, biserial, the interior larger. 
Petals0. 3: Stamens 6. 2: Ovaries 8 ; styles cylindrical, uncinate. 
Drupes large, ovoid: the cavity divided by a thin vertical plate of 
the endocarp, penetrating from the base to the arch of the seed. 
Seed completely inflexed, with the inner sides flat and accumbent 
to the plate: endosperm thick, ruminated, and separated by nu- 
merous horizontal incisures penetrating almost to the middle : 
embryo inflexed-cylindrical, almost equalling in length the endo- 
sperm, and included by its central channel.— Woody vines ; leaves 
leathery, entire, with the petiole thickened at the top; flowers small, 
arranged in axillary racemose panicles. 
The materials upon which this character has been constructed 
are: lst, flowers of both sexes and fruit of A. rufescens, Aubl., 
from the Rio Negro, in the Brazilian Collection of Spruce (5, 
Abuta, no. 2; 2, no. 2840; fruit, no. 2803); 2nd, male flowers 
and fruit from the same ($, no. 2829 ; fruit, no. 2102). 
The genus is distinct. from Cocculus chiefly by its ovoid (not 
compressed) drupes, by its ruminated endosperm, and by wanting 
petals: but its character, as given by different authors, was either 
