58 V. MENISPEKMACE-E. [Slepliania. 



distinguished as species : but tlicy almost always grow together, and pass gradually from tLc 

 one to the other. 



The species extends from eastern Africa almost all over India and the Archipelago, and 

 northward to China. 



5. PACHYGO]>fE, Micrs. 



Sepals 6 or 9, in 2 or 3 series^ the inner ones larger, imbricate. Petals 6, 

 shorter than the sepals, embracing the stamens at the base. Male fl. : Sta- 

 mens 63 fi'ce, incurved at the top, anthers small, globose-didymous. Female 

 fl. : Staminodia 6. Carpels 3, with thick horizontal stigmas. Drupes reni- 

 form, the scar of the style near the base ; putameu slightly excavated, with an 

 internal process. Seed horseshoe-shaped, without albumen, cotyledons scn:ii- 

 terete, almost horny, the radicle very short.- — Leaves ovate, blowers in ra- 

 cemes, the males clustered along the rhachis, the females solitary. 



Besides the Australian species, which is endemic, the genus comprises one from tropical 

 Asia, which alone has furnished so much of the above character as relates to the female 

 llowcr and fruit. 



1. P.(?) pubescens, BentJt, A woody climber, the young branches 

 l)ubcscent. Leaves petiolate, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate or rarely ob- 

 tuse, 3 to 4 in. long, 5 -nerved at the base, coriaceous, glabrous and shining 

 or slightly scabrous above, pubescent underneath. Male racemes axillary, 

 often 2 or 3 together, many-flowered but much shorter than the leaves, pubes- 

 cent. Pedicels clustered, about 1 line long. Flowers glabrous, scarcely more 

 than 1 line diameter when open. Sepals 9, in 3 series, the outer ones small 

 and lanceolate, the next longer, the innermost still larger, nan'ow-ovate. 

 Petals about half as long as the inner sepals. Stamens 6; anthers globose- 

 didymous, almost 4-lobcd. Female flowers and fruit unknown. 



Qaeeusland. Quail Island, Flood (F. Mueller). In the ahsence of the female flowers 

 and fruit, the genus of this plant cannot be fixed with certainty. The form and venation of 

 the leaves, the inflorescence and general structure of the male flowers, are so nearly those 

 of the E. Indian Pachjgone ovata, that I might have taken it for a large-heaved, more pubes- 

 cent variety of that species, but for the presence of a third outer series of small sepals which 

 arc not in P. ovata ; the inner sepals are also narrower than in that species, and not ciliatc. 

 I have only been able to examine 2 flowers ; the persistent pedicels were very numerous, but 

 almost every flower had already fallen from the only two specimens I have seen. 



f 



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I 



i 



6. PLEOGYNE, Miers, 



(Microclisia, Benlh.) 



Outer sepals about 6, very small, 3 inner ones much larger, valvate in the 

 bud, connivent at the base and recurved at the top when open. Petals 6, 

 much shorter, the margins dilated and involute. IMale fl. : Stameus 3 ; hhi- 

 ments linear-terete; anthers small, globose-didymous. Feuialc fl. with 6 j 



carpels (Miers), Drupes 3 to 6, rcniform, with the scar of the style lateral, 

 the putameu not excavated on the sides, nor with any internal process. Seed 

 reniform, without albumen ; cotyledons thick and fleshv, scarcely separable ; 

 radicle scarcely distinct.— Flowers in short axillary branching panicles. I 



The genus is limited to a single species. Miers had originally characterized it very 

 •hortly from female specimens only, and I failed to recognize it in the male specimens T 

 possessed with others in fruit, which did not show the increased number of carpels nicu- 



t 



