aT Rate 
Tas. 4614. 
SPHAZROSTEMA propineuuM. 
Dr. Wailich’s Spherostema. 
Nat. Ord. ScuizANDRACE#.—Die@cta PoLYANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. Spherostema, Bl. Kadsure sp., Wall. — Flores unisexuales, 
monoici vel dioici. Corolle petala 9-15, ordine subternario in series 3-5 alter- 
nantes imbricata, erecto-conniventia vel patentia, toro imo inserta, crassiuscula ; 
Serle! externe ceteris plus minus magnitudine inferiora et tenuiora, seepe ine- 
qualia bracteolisque subconformia, calycina; omnia decidua.— FLoREs FeEM. 
Ovaria plurima, toro conico insidentia, confertissima, ovata, obliqua, subgibbosa, 
unilocularia. Ovula duo, parietina, ex angulo centrali dependentia. Styli nulli; 
stigmata totidem atque ovaria, ad eorundem faciem extremam lateralia. Carpella 
numerosissima, in toro valde elongato carnoso spicatim disposita, distinctissima, 
subglobosa v, obovato-globosa, in stipitem crassum brevissimum plerumque at- 
tenuata, ceterum cum illis Kadsure quoad fabricam omnino conniventia. Bi. 
SPHEROSTEMA propinguum ; dioicum, foliis ovatis denticulatis acuminatissimis, 
pedunculis axillaribus solitariis fasciculatisve bracteolis sparsis tectis petiolo 
longioribus, staminibus omnibus receptaculo connatis. 
SPHAROSTEMA propinquum. Blume, Schizandr. p. 14. 
Kapsura propinqua. Wall. Tent. Fl. Nep. p. 11. t. 15. 
\ 
We regret that we have only the male flowers of this interest- 
ing plant to represent ; but that is of the less consequence since 
we have so good a representation of the fertile flowers and of the 
fruit in Dr. Wallich’s excellent ‘Tentamen Flore Nepalensis 
Illustrate,’ above quoted. Our figure was taken from a plant. 
that flowered in the stove of the Royal Gardens of Kew, in June 
1851. Dr. Wallich, to whom we are indebted for our plants, 
discovered the species on Sheopore and other hills at Lankoo, 
Nepal. Dr. Hooker found it frequent at from 7-9,000 feet in 
Sikkim-Himalaya. It is a handsome and fragrant shrub: the 
natives eat the fruit, which consists of many berries attached to 
a receptacle: the latter elongates itself as the fruit advances to 
maturity, when the whole resembles a long bunch of red currants. 
Dzscr. A much branching, twiggy, somewhat climbing 
shrub, glabrous. Leaves alternate, on short petioles, ovate, 
NOVEMBER Ist, 1851. 
