Tab. 5469. 

 THLADIANTHA dubia. 



Dubious Tldadiantha. 



Nat. Ord. Cucttrbitace^. — Dkecia Pentandria. 



Gen. Char. Mores dioici ; masculi dimorphi, inpequales ; tubo calycino lata 

 campauulato, sepalis majusculis complanatis ; m^omm petala fere libera, erecta, 

 corollam campanulatam fingcntia, sepalis (ut plurimum reflexis) longiom. 

 Anthera 5, dimidiatse, aequales, 1-loculares, rectse, filamcntis liberis, 4> per paria 

 petalis 2 opposita?, quinta solitaria cum petalis 2 alternante. Appendicula brevis, 

 petaloidea, obtusa, discum centralera horizontaliter tegens. Floram mane, mi-' 

 norum : petala sepalis breviora; anlkerce, at videtur, steriles. Fl. fmminei : calyx 

 et corolla masculi. Styli 3, breves ; stigmatibus reniformi-capitatis. Bacca 

 oblonga, pulposa, sub-12-costata, inter costas lacunosa. Sembia numerosa, mul- 

 tiseriata, obovoidea, compressa ; testa Crustacea, lacunosa, pulpa induta. {De- 

 script, partini ex Naudino.) 



Thladiantha dubia. Bunge, En. PL Chin. Bor. 29. Nandin in Aimaiet des 

 Sc. Nat., fcr. -i. v. 12. p. 150. 



According to a notice in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle' for 1861, 

 p. 845, this very remarkable plant forms a large rambling climber, 

 covering trellis-work and bushes to a considerable height in the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris. We received our plant from Messrs. 

 Henderson and Co., of Wellington Road Nursery, and it flowered 

 freely' in a cool pit ; but, as is the case both with the Parisian 

 specimens and with those first described by Bunge (the author 

 of the genus), all the flowers produced have been males. Ac- 

 cording to Bunge the species was discovered by himself in waste 

 places near Pekin ; and Naudin, who has re-described the genus 

 in the * Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' states that the seeds 

 were received by the Imperial Jardin d'Acclimatation from China. 

 On comparing the specimens with our herbarium, we find a 

 closely allied plant gathered by Drs. Hooker and Thomson in 

 the Sikkim Himalaya and Khasia mountains, from 5-6000 feet 

 elevation, together with drawings of both the male and female 

 flowers and fruit, made by Dr. Hooker (from which our figures 

 3 to 8 are copied). There is however this difference between 

 the Himalayan and Chinese male flowers, that the Himalayan 



OCTOBER 1st, 1864. 



