108 PEOr. GRISEBACH ON THE GENUS ABUTA. 



Notes on Ahuta, a genus of Menispermece. By N. Grtsebach, 

 Professor of Botany in the University of G5ttingen. Com- 

 municated by Dr. J. D. Hookee, F.L.S. 

 [Eead March 18th, 1858.] 

 The MenispermecB of tropical America, though less numerous than 

 those of the East Indies, are in a state of some confusion ; and 

 when I studied the West Indian forms for my intended Elora of 

 those islands, Aublet's Ahuta seemed to require a particular in- 

 vestigation. Miers had reduced correctly to Ahuta Persoon's 

 genus Trichoa (Batschia, Thunb.), but at the same time he ex- 

 cluded Ahuta concolor, Poepp., which Endlicher before him had 

 referred to Trichoa. From this South American species, and from 

 the West Indian Cocculus domingensis, which, together with some 

 other forms, he considered congeners, Miers constructed his new 

 genus Anelasma (Ann. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. vii. p. 37 seq.). The re- 

 sult of my inquiries is, however, at variance with his views, and the 

 object of these remarks is to prove that Ahuta is a distinct genus 

 of Cocculece, comprising Aublet's and Poeppig's species, and that 

 Cocculus domingensis does not belong to the same. The character 

 of Ahuta, which, as Miers has well suggested, approaches most to 

 the East Indian genus Tiliacora (distinct by a greater number of 

 carpels), is the following : — 



Ahuta, Aubl. Chae. gen. Sepals 6, biserial, the interior larger. 

 Petals 0. (S : Stamens 6. $ : Ovaries 3 ; styles cyliudrical, uncinate. 

 Drupes large, ovoid : the cavity divided by a thin vertical plate of 

 the endocarp, penetrating from the base to the arch of the seed. 

 Seed completely inflexed, with the inner sides flat and accumbent 

 to the plate : endosperm thick, ruminated, and separated by nu- 

 merous horizontal incisures penetrating almost to the middle : 

 emhryo inflexed-cylindrical, almost equalling in length the endo- 

 sperm, and included by its central channel. — Woody vines ; leaves 

 leathery, entire, with the petiole thichened at the top ; flowers small 

 arranged in axillary racemose panicles. 



The materials upon which this character has been constructed 

 are : 1st, flowers of both sexes and fruit of A. rufescens, Aubl., 

 from the Rio Negro, in the Brazilian Collection of Spruce ( 6 , 

 Ahuta, no. 2 ; $ , no. 2340 ; fruit, no. 2303) ; 2nd, male flowers 

 and fruit from the same ( c? , no. 2829 ; fruit, no. 2102). 



The genus is distinct from Cocculus chiefly by its ovoid (not 

 compressed) drupes, by its ruminated endosperm, and by wanting 

 petals : but its character, as given by different authors, was either 



