extend 



V. MENISPEKMACE.K. , 55 



ft 



minoilia usually 6, free. Carpels djstiuct, usually 3, sometimes G or more or 

 only 1, containing- 1 or very rarely 2 ampliitropous ovules peltately attached 

 to the inner angle. Style terminal, usually recurved, and often expanding into a 

 sliort sessile stigma. Fruit-carpels drupaceous, nearly straight, or more fre- 

 quently curved, so that the remains of the style are near the base, the puta- 

 men then becoming more or less horseshoe-shaped, with an inner projection of 

 the endoeai-j) bearing the placentae. Seed taking the shape of the cavity, with 

 a thin membranous testa. Albumen sometimes fleshy, entire or ruminate, 

 sometimes thin or none. Embryo nearly as long as the albumen or occupy- 

 ing the whole seed, the radicle pointing to the remains of the style. — Climbers, 

 usually woody, or in a very few non-Australian species erect herbs or shrubs. 

 Leaves alternate, without stipvdes, entire or rarely palmately lobed, usually 

 ^ith 3 or more palmate ribs at the base. Flowers small, in axiliaiy panicles, 

 racemes, or cymes. 



A cousiderable tropical Order, both, in the New and the Old World, a very fews]>ecies. 

 iding into more tcmpcriitc regions in North America, eastern Asia, or southern Africa. 

 Of the 7 Austi-aliau genera 3 are endemic, the others Asiatic or African, 



Sepals imbricate. Petals 6. Stamens 6, free. Carpels 3. 

 llowers in simple racemes. 



Inner sepals broad and thin. Carpels of the fruit ovoid, the 



style at the top. Seed albumiuous, nearly straight .... 1. Tings roRA. 

 Inner sepals narrow-ovate. Carpels of the fruit broad, the style 



near the bnse. Seed without albumen 5. Pachygone. 



Flowers in niucli-branclied cymes. Carpels of the friiit broad, the 



style near the base. Seed albuminous 2. rEUiCAMriLUS. 



Sepals imbricate or open. Tetals usually 3 to 5. Stamens united in 

 a central column. Carpels broad, the style near the base. Seed 

 albuminous. 

 Sepals very small. Petals thick and fleshy, almost globidar. An- 



thcrs 2 or 3. Carpels 3 to 6. Flowers racemose 3. Sarcopetalum. 



i'dals smaller than the sepiJs, concave. Anthers 4 or 5. Carpels 



solitary. Flowers umbellate *• Stefhania. 



Inner sepals valvate. }>etals 6. Stamens 3. Carpels about 6, when 



in fruit broad, the style near the base. No albumen 6. Pleogynb. 



Petals imbricate. Petals 3. Stamens 9 to 13. Carpels 3, 2-ovuIate 7- Adeliopsis. 



^ 



1. TINOSPOEA, Miers. 



Sepals 6, in 2 series, tlic inner ones large. Petals 6, smaller than the sc- 

 P'-^ls, nearly flat. Male fl. : Stamens 6, free, thickened towards the top, the 

 "iither-cells lateral. Pemale fl. : Stamiuodia 6. Carpels 3, stigmas jagged. 

 -l>nipcs ovoid, the remains of the st^yle nearly terminal. Pntamen slightly 

 concave on the inner face, the internal projection hcniispherioal and liollow, 

 lorniing an empty cell. Seed disk-shaped, albuuiinons. Cotyledons ovate, 

 spreading latondly.— Leaves cordate or truncate at the base. Plowers nsually 

 clustered ill long simple racemes. 



A small gctius, chiefly Asiiitic, but extending also to tropical Africa. The Australian 

 species endemic. 



J*aves ovate-cordate, entire ^ J Ifw 1/ - 



^vcs Lroad, obtusely 3-lobed, mucli vciucd . . 2. 1. U aJcotta, 



1- T. smilacina, Bndh. in Jonrn. linn. Soc. v. Sxj^pl 52. A glabrous 



