40 



Order IV. MENISPERMACEJE (by Prof. Oliver). 



Flowers small, dioecious. Sepals usually 6, sometimes 9-12, rarely 4 or 1, 

 nearly always free, usually imbricate, in 2-4 series ; the outer smaller, often 

 very minute. Petals 6, shorter than or not exceeding the inner sepals, rarely 4 

 or fewer, free or united (in Cissampelos) or 0. Male fl. : Stamens equal in 

 number and opposite to the petals, rarely fewer or more, free or united ; an- 

 thers free, 2-4-celled, dehiscing longitudinally or transversely, or connate in 

 a peltate disk. Female fl. : Staminodia 6 or 0. Carpels free, usually 3, in 

 few genera 1 or 6-12, sessile or stipitate ; stigma terminal, entire or divided. 

 Ovules solitary, usually amphitropous. Fruit-carpels drupaceous, with the 

 scar of the style subterminal or, by excentric growth, brought near to the base. 

 Seed concave or sulcate on the inner face, often curved in the form of a 

 horseshoe around an intruded portion of the putamen, with uniform or rumi- 

 nate albumen or exalbuminous ; embryo with the cotyledons appressed or 

 divaricate. — Climbing or twining shrubs or more rarely perennial herbs. 

 Leaves alternate, exstipulate, usually palminerved, entire or lobed, Flowers 

 small or minute, fascicled, cymose racemose or panicled, rarely solitary. 



A considerable tropical Order, with a few species extending into cool countries both in 

 the New and Old World. The species are generally easily recognizable by their climbing 

 habit, minute unisexual 3-merous flowers, with stamens opposite to the petals, apocarpous 

 pistil and the form of the seed. Several of the following genera are confined to tropical 

 Africa, but as some of them rest upon imperfect material, it is uncertain whether they cau 

 be maintained. 



In some of the genera it. is difficult to know what to call sepals, petals, and bracteoles. 

 In doubtful cases I have generally employed the terms used in the ' Genera Plantarum.' 

 Drupes with the scar of the style near the apex. 



Stamens C, more or less connate ; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing lon- 

 gitudinally 1. Chasmantheba- 



Stamens 6, free or united below ; anthers 4-lobed, dehiscing trans- 

 versely 2. Jateorhiza. 



Stamens 6, free ; anthers 2-locnlar, dehiscing longitudinally . . 3. Tinospora. 

 (See 8. Rhigiocarya, and 9. Triclisia.) 

 Drupes with the scar of the style near the base. 

 Carpels 9-12. 



Sepals 6. Petals 6. Stamens 6, free or united below ... 4. Tiliacora. 



(See 9. Triclisia?) 

 Carpels 3. Stamens 3-9, free or the filaments united below. 



Sepals 6. Petals 6. Stamens 6, free 5. Cocculus. 



(See 10. Synclisia; 11. Penianthus ; 12. Syrrhonema.) 

 Carpel solitary. Stamens with the anthers united into a peltate 

 disk. 

 Male fl. : Sepals 4. Petals united into a minute cupuliform 



corolla. Female fl. : Sepal 1 6. CrssAMPiaos. 



Male fl. : Sepals 6 (or more). Petals 3-5, free. Female fl. : 



Sepals 3-4 7, StepHania. 



1. CHASMANTHEBA, Hochst. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI i. 34. 



Sepals 6, in 2 series ; 3 inner larger, membranous. Petals 6, shorter than 

 the inner sepals, thickened along the middle and towards the base. Male fl- : 



