44 MR. J. MIERS ON THE FAMILY OF TRIURIACEÆ,. 
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 riuris; these sheaths consist of a simple cuticle with lacerated margins, without 
nerves or veins, but marked by several parallel lines, which under a lens are seen to be 
those peculiar ducts formed of dotted spiral walls so frequently seen in the Menispermacee, 
and of which no signs are visible in the accompanying plant, or in Triwris. 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 affinities of Triuris. 
Under these circumstances, the name of Peltophyllwm 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 Zriwris only in having six instead of three segments to its perianth, the 
name of Hevuris 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 :— 
Hexvrıs, Miers. Peltophyllum, Gardn. 
Cuar. Gen. Flores dioici. Masc. ignoti. Fem. Perianthium profunde 6-partitum, hyalinum, per- 
sistens ; laciniis obovatis, præfloratione valvatis, singul infra apicem cornu. subulato dupló longiore 
gyrato incluso, demüm patentibus, marginibus reflexis. Ovaria indefinité numerosa, minima, den- 
sissimé in gynæcium aggregata, sessilia, gibboso-ovata, 1-locularia, 1-ovulata. Stylus subulatus, ad 
faciem internam sublateralis, apice paulüm incrassatus, obliqué truncatus et stigmatosus. Fructus 
ignotus. 
Planta pusilla, Brasiliensis, diaphana, albescens; rhizomate fibroso; caule erecto simplici vel subramoso ; 
foliis bracteiformibus paucis, basilaribus, ovatis, acutis, adpressis, hyalinis; floribus solitariis vel sub- 
racemosis; pedunculis 1-floris basi 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-plö longioribus; bracteis folio æqualibus. 
Hab. in arenosis umbrosis humidis prov. Goyaz, Brasilie. 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. 
