282 Miscellaneous. 



somewhat attenuated towards the apex, obtuse, 2-4 centim. long, 

 straight or slightly curved, 5-8 millimet. thick at the base, with an 

 almost cylindrical axis, and facetted with a sort of net-work of the 

 projecting apices of the berries. The berries are very thickly planted 

 in spiral lines, so that about ten are always seen in a transverse sec- 

 tion. The persistent bracts situated between the berries are shield- 

 shaped, with compressed membranous-winged stalks, which adhere 

 in some degree to the surrounding berries and to the coriaceous, 

 round or roundly-triangular scutellum, which usually coheres very 

 firmly with the three bracts enclosing it, and is of a blackish-brown 

 colour, with a membranous, somewhat incurved border. The dried 

 berries are about 2 millimet. long, obovate, and from the base to 

 two-thirds of their height mostly five-angled through compression, 

 as they are in contact with one another to that point. The remain- 

 ing upper part projects out beyond the shields of the bracts, is 

 smooth, compressed below, hemispherical, with an obtuse apex. The 

 dried pericarp is thin, the seed about ly millimet. long, obovate or 

 rather spherical, somewhat angular beneath, and with an inconspi-? 

 cuous umbilicus ; slightly pointed above. The testa or outer seed- 

 membrane is crustaceous, black, shining, and under the lens presents 

 groups of dots ; the inner seed-membrane {Endopleura) is whitish ; 

 both adhere firmly, in the scarcelj'^-ripe seed, to the cellular albumen, 

 in the apex of which is imbedded the embryo, enclosed in the conico- 

 circular embryo-sac- 



II. Genus Cubeha, Miq. — Flowers dioecious. The male catkins 

 are smaller, and have unstalked bracts overlapping one another, be- 

 hind which stand 2-5 stamens, with ovate or reniform two-celled 

 anthers. The bracts of the female catkins are almost sessile, roundly 

 shield-shaped, often hairy beneath and persistent. Ovarium sessile, 

 ovate, with 3-5 sessile, recurved, short stigmas. The berries are, 

 from their contracted base, apparently stalked {pseudo-pedicellat(B), 

 Fruit-membrane thin. Seeds roundish, with coriaceous or horny 

 testa and mealy albumen. 



Climbing shrubs from the East Indies and hotter parts of Africa. 

 The female plant is often distinguished from the male by habit and 

 the form of the leaf, but always by the catkins being thicker, and 

 presenting at maturity an almost clustered appearance on account of 

 the stalked berries. 



Ciibeba officinalis^ Miq. — A climbing shrub with smooth leaves ; 

 the lower cordate at the base, ovate, and with a short point ; the 

 upper ovate, but more elongated, with a rounded base and smaller. 

 Those of the male plant are 5-, those of the female 5-9 nerved. The 

 catkins grow on stalks of the length of the leaf-stalks; the male are 

 slender, the female thicker ; the bracts coarsely hairy, the berries 

 globular, and their stalks longer than themselves. 



Synonyms, Piper Cubeba, Linn, fil., Blume, Abbildung. ; Miquel, 

 Comment. Phytogr., tab. i. et ii. 



This species, the only one furnishing the true cubebs, grows wild 

 in Bantam, the west part of Java, as well as in the neighbouring 

 small islands. It is cultivated now only in the lower parts of the 



