NAT. ORDER. iMENISPERjMACEiE. 83 



ceiS. The root is perenniai, composed of a number of fasciculated, 

 fusiform, somewhat branched, fleshy, curved, and descending tubers, 

 from one to three inches in thickness, clothed with a thin, brown 

 epidermis, marked towards the upper part especially, with trans- 

 verse warts ; internally they consist of a deep yellow, scentless, 

 very bitter flesh, filled with numerous parallel, longitudinal fibres 

 or vessels ; the stems are annual, herbaceous, one or two proceed- 

 ing from the same root, about the thickness of the little fingei-, 

 twining, simple in the male plant, branched in the female, rounded, 

 green ; in the full-grown plant, below, thickly clothed with succu- 

 lent, longitudinal hairs, which are tipped with a gland ; the leaves 

 are alternate, the younger ones thin, pellucid, bright green, gen- 

 erally three-lobed ; older ones remote, a span in breadth, nearly 

 orbicular in their circumscription, deeply cordate, five to seven- 

 lobed, the lobes entire, often deflexed, wavy on the surface and 

 margin, dark green above, paler underneath, hairy on both sides, 

 with prominent nerves, and supported on round, hairy footstalks, 

 about as long as the leaves. 



In the male plant, the racemes are axillary, solitary, or two to- 

 gether, drooping, about as long as the petioles, compound, clothed 

 with glandular hairs, and having at the base small deciduous brac- 

 teas ; the cahjx is smooth, consisting of six ovate, acute, nearly 

 equal leaves, arranged in a double series ; the corolla is pale o-reen, 

 consisting of six oblong, {ree petals, with involute margins, and re- 

 curved apices, arranged round a central, orbicular disk, or gland, 

 in a single series ; xkve filaments are six, thick, shorter than the 

 petals, with terminal, truncated, four-celled anthers ; the cells 

 opening internally, and filled with linear, oblong grains of yellow 

 pollen. In the female plant, the racemes are also axillary, solitary, 

 simple, patent, shorter than those of the male ; the pedicels are 

 furnished with minute, caducous bracteas ; the sepals, or leaves of 

 the calyx, are six, in two series, three inferior, small, ovate, acute, 

 subpatent, plain, glabrous ; the petals are six, rarely eight, green, 



