44 MR. J. MIERS ON THE FAMILY OF TRIURIACE^E. 



the leaf, however, offers a very different appearance ; it is far more opake, not darkened in 

 the centre, but altogether traversed by numerous longitudinal vessels, which can be traced 

 distinctly in continuity with the radiating nervures of the leaf-blade : this blade has the 

 same texture, similar nervures with finely reticulated venations, even to the same peculiar 

 excurrent free veins terminating abruptly in the centre of all the areoles, and the midrib 

 is excurrent in a long mucronate point, as in the leaf of a Cissampelos. Again, the mem- 

 branaceous tubes that surround the base of the petiolar support do not exist in the plant 

 allied to Triuris ; these sheaths consist of a simple cuticle with lacerated margins, without 

 nerves or veins, but marked by several parallel fines, which under a lens are seen to be 

 those peculiar ducts formed of dotted spiral walls so frequently seen in the Menispermacece, 

 and of which no signs are visible in the accompanying plant, or in Triuris. The inference 

 hence is irresistible, that the leaf-bearing stem has no connexion with the singular plant 

 that accompanied it, and that it is only a young seedling of some other plant, probably of 

 a Cissampelos. It has been necessary to be thus precise upon a point involving the validity 

 of all Mr. Gardner's views regarding the aifinities of Triuris. 



Under these circumstances, the name of Peltophyllum can apply only to the Menisper- 

 maceous plant, and not to the other, for which a new appellation must now be given. As 

 it differs from Triuris only in having six instead of three segments to its perianth, the 

 name of Hexuris appears the most appropriate ; and in order to retain the name of its 

 discoverer in connexion with it, I propose to call it H. Gardneri. Its generic character 

 may hence be reformed as follows : — 



Hexuris, Miers. Peltophyllum, Gardn. 



Char. Gen. Flores dioici. Masc. ignoti. Fern. Perianthium profunde 6-partitum, hyalinum, per- 

 sistens ; laciniis obovatis, praefloratione valvatis, singula infra apicem cornu subulato duplo longiore 

 gyrato incluso, demiim patentibus, marginibus reflexis. Ovaria indefinite numerosa, minima, den- 

 sissime in gynaecium aggregata, sessilia, gibboso-ovata, 1-locularia, 1-ovulata. Stylus subulatus, ad 

 faciem internam sublateralis, apice paulum incrassatus, oblique truncatus et stigmatosus. Fructus 

 ignotus. 



Planta pusilla, Brasiliensis, diaphana, albescens ; rhizomate fibrosa ; caule erecto simplici vel subramoso ; 

 foliis bracteiformibus paucis, basilaribus, ovatis, acutis, adpressis, hyalinis ; floribus solitariis vel sub- 

 racemosis; pedunculis \-floris bast bracteatis. 



1. Hexuris Gardneri, Miers. 



Peltophyllum luteum, Gardn. in Linn. Trans, vol. xix. p. 157. tab. 15. 



Planta sub-2-pollicaris, hyalina ; caule imo foliolis 2 minimis donato ; pedunculis 2-3-4 alternis, flore 



3-plo longioribus ; bracteis folio aequalibus. 

 Hab. in arenosis umbrosis humidis prov. Goyaz, Brasilia?. Gardn. No. 3570. 



Three years subsequently to the presentation of Mr. Gardner's paper, a memoir by Cap- 

 tain Champion appeared *, describing two plants which he had discovered in Ceylon, one 

 of which was evidently allied to the Sciaphila of Blume, and both of very analogous struc- 

 ture to the foregoing genera. These, soon after his arrival in Ceylon, he had shown to 



* Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist. vol. vii. p. 463. 



