Tab. 5G85. 



VITIS PLANICAULIS. 



Flat-stemmed Vine. 



Nat. Orel. Ampelide^;. — Teteandbia Monogtnia. 

 Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tab. 5682.) 



\ raia planicaulis ; glaberrima, caule alte scandente lignoso plano-coin- 

 presso, ramulis teretibus, foliis longe petiolatis digitatim 5-foliolatis, 

 foliolis petiolulatis oblongo-lanceolatis obtuse acuminatis subdistauter 

 serratis basi obtusis, cirrhis robustis simplicibus, cymis breviuscule 

 pedunculatis subcorymbosis ramosis ramis divaricatis, floribus abortu 

 unisexualibus robuste pedicellatis 4-meris, cahcis margine integerrimo, 

 alubastris urceolatis, petalis demum patentibua caducis late ovato- 

 triangularibus obtusis, disco inconspicuo, ovario late conico, stigmatis 

 lobjs 4 rotundatis patentibus, bacca majuscula globosa, seminibus cor- 

 difbrmibus dorso medio sulcatis lateribus transverse corrugatis, an- 

 tice medio carinatis. 



This is one of those carious tropical forms of the genus 

 Fitis that form enormous lianas in the forests of the torrid 

 zone, and attract the attention of every traveller by their 

 remarkable characters ; in the present plant it is the struc- 

 ture of the stem and its enormous size that form its most 

 conspicuous features. These stems may be seen in the 

 forests, at the base of the central Himalayan provinces, de- 

 scending from the overhanging limbs of gigantic forest trees, 

 in the form of flat, lithe bands, as much as eighteen inches 

 in breadth, and not one inch in thickness, and of much the 

 colour and pliability of those gutta-percha bands that are 

 used for the driving-machinery of our manufactories. This 

 species was discovered in the Sikkim Himalaya by myself in 

 1849, and the specimen here figured was derived from a 

 plant whose seeds were sent home at that time, and which 

 now climbs the rafters of the Succulent House at Kew. 

 Specimens of the trunk may be seen in the Museum (No. 1). 

 In the absence of the disk (or, more probably, its confluence 



ianuary 1st, 18G8. 



