Mr. Colebrooke on the Indian Species of Menispermum. 



by that author. He has made it comprehend certain monoicous 

 plants and hermaphrodite flowers, and sweep several distinct ge- 

 nera established by Willdenow and other writers. I shall briefly 

 notice some of them. 



Lamarck, upon specimens communicated to him by Sonnerat. 

 described a species of Menispermum, to which he gave the name 

 of radiation ; and cited a tigure of the Hortus Malabaricut(v6l. vii. 

 t.3.) as representing the same species. Willdenow, quoting th< 

 same figure, and intimating also his own inspection of a dry speci- 

 men, instituted a distinct genus, under the name of Braunea, for 

 a plant which he identified with Koenig's Menispermum glubrum. 

 Kcenig's plant of that name is however identified by Roxburgh 

 with Menispermum cordifolium of Willdenow, who cites for this 

 species Klein's communication of it by the name of If. glubrum ; 

 intimating likewise his own inspection of a dry specimen in this 

 instance also. Roxburgh, it is to be observed, is a great autho- 

 rity in regard to Kcenig's botanical researches in India, having 

 been his fellow-labourer in those researches. 



The concurrence of two eminent botanists in quoting the same 

 figure from the Hortus Malabaricus, is the only ground for pre- 

 suming the identity of the two plants ; their descriptions of which 

 are by no means parallel. It is to be remembered too, that 

 Willdenow had Lamarck's work before him, and made constant 

 use of it when he was employed on the genus Menispermum. It 

 appears, therefore, that he was dissatisfied with Lamarck's de- 

 scription, as he has made no reference to it. Indeed, if Willde- 

 now's accuracy may be implicitly trusted in regard to a minutely 

 small flower examined by him in a very dry state, he had good 

 cause for constructing a new genus for a plant, of which the 

 female blossom not only wants the nectarial scales, or inner corol, 

 but exhibits a solitary germ, and in the mature state a tricoc- 

 cous berry. 



Ju 



