CISSAMPELOS. 



amer. 78. t. 93.) — West India Islands, and Spanish Main. 

 (Pareira brava, or Velvet leaf.) 



Stems either smooth or with close pressed down. Leaves nearly 

 orbicular, peltate, aristate at the point, when full grown smooth above, 

 underneath covered with silky pubescence, but not truly downy. <£. 

 Peduncles solitary or in pairs, branching from the base, as long as the 

 petiole or longer, racemose-corymbose, with divaricating downy ramifi- 

 cations : flowers hispid. J Racemes longer than the leaves, bearing 

 the flowers in spiked fascicles. Bracts sessile, somewhat orbicular, 

 scarcely mucronate. Berries scarlet, round, compressed, shrivelled, 

 thinned to the edge, all over hispid with long hairs. — The root of this 

 plant is a well-known tonic, and diuretic, exercising a specific influence 

 over the mucous membrane lining the urinary passages. In large doses 

 it is said to be aperient. It is employed in dyspepsia, gonorrhoea, 

 leucorhcea, and chronic inflammation of the bladder, and in the latter 

 disease more especially it appears to be of very great importance. 



771. C. microcarpa DC. syst. i. 534, appears to be a mere 

 variety of the last. 



772. C. glaberrima Aug. de St. H. f. bras. i. 57. Caapeba 

 &c. Marcgr. bras. 25, 26. — Waysides and cultivated places in 

 the provinces of Rio Janeiro and Minas Geraes. 



All the plant quite smooth. Stem and leaves bitter, with a stimu- 

 lating odour like that of Tropseolum. Stem herbaceous. Leaves 

 peltate, ovate, acute, round at the base, quite entire, 1 1-nerved. 

 Flowers greenish. $ Racemose and corymbose. Sepals oblong- 

 linear, 1-nerved ; cup campanulate, 4-lobed. — This is the Brazilian 

 Pareira, which M. Aug. de St. Hilaire separates specifically from the 

 West India plant. It appears to possess the same properties. 



773. C. ovalifolia DC. syst. i. 537. Aug. de St. H. pi. us. 

 No. 34. y?. bras. i. 51. — Plains in the western part of the province 

 of Minas Geraes, near the town of Paracatu, and in the southern 

 part of the province of Goyaz ; Para. (Orelha de Onca.) 



Stems suflruticose, erect, simple, downy. Leaves short stalked, 

 ovate, rather obtuse, somewhat repand on each side, or on the under 

 side only; petiole, and female racemes downy. Male racemes usually in 

 threes, and hispid. Inner female sepal villous at the back. A.de St. H. 



— The bitter roots are employed in Brazil, in decoction, as a cure for 

 intermittent fevers. 



ABUTA. 



According to M. Auguste de St. Hilaire this supposed genus 

 differs from Cocculus in nothing except the absence of the 2 inner 

 rows of sepals. But it appears to me that in such an order as 

 this the character alluded to is sufficient to justify the continu- 

 ance of the genus. 



774. A. rufescens Aubl. guian. i. 618. t. 250. DC. syst. i. 542. 



— Woods of Cayenne and Guayana. (White Pareira Brava.) 

 A shrub with a tortuous trunk climbing over trees. Branches 



373 b b 3 



