170 flora indica. [Menispermacere. 



spherical cotyledons have the ordinary position. The seed has therefore an elon- 

 gated cylindrical shape, and is curved like a horse-shoe or siphon, the hilum occu- 

 pying the bottom of the concavity. The putamen then forms a bony sheath, which 

 closely invests the seed ; but the concavity of the horse-shoe, along which the nutri- 

 tive vessels run from the base of the fruit, is filled up by one or more bony plates, 

 variously perforated, and sometimes enclosing empty spaces. 



The albumen of Menispermacea varies as much as the form of the embryo. It is 

 generally only present in small quantity, and in the tribe Pachygonea it is entirely 

 wanting. Most commonly it is fleshy and homogeneous ; but in several genera not 

 otherwise very closely allied, namely in Tinospora, Abuta, and Tiliacora* it is very 

 oily, and ruminated by means of transverse membranous plates. In Anamirta it 

 contains small granular masses of a different texture from the greater portion ; and 

 finally, in Coscinium it is irregularly ruminated by cellular plates springing from the 

 hilum, the nature of which has not been accurately determined. 



The close relationship of Menispermacea to the great class of Apocarpous Thala- 

 miflora^ in which they are generally placed, may be considered well established ; as 

 the ingenious arguments by which Dr. Lindley attempts to maintain his opinion that 

 they are more nearly related to apetalous orders have been well answered by M. 

 Decaisne ; who has shown, as we think, successfully, that neither the structure of the 

 wood (to which we shall advert more particularly further on) nor the unisexual flowers, 

 are to be relied on as indications of affinity. 



To all the Orders of this great class, Menispermacea present more or less affinity 

 by means of aberrant species, though the typical forms collectively possess such a 

 peculiar habit as to make them a very natural family. "With Anonacea they are con- 

 nected by means of the genera with ruminated albumen ; with Myristicacea through 

 Coscinium ; with Lardizabalacea and Berberidea through Burasaia; to Ranuncu- 

 lacea they are only allied through Berberidea > and to Magnoliacea through Schi- 

 zandracea. Dilleniacea are the most distant, lying at the opposite extremity of 

 the class, so as to form a passage to a very different series of Orders. 



Menispermacea agree with Berberidea in the structure and number of the parts 

 of the perianth, in the usually definite stamens, in the solitary ovarium of Cissam- 

 pelidea, and in the comparatively large embryo, differing, however, in many impor- 

 tant points. 



From Lardizabalacea, which they approach very closely in the number of parts and 

 in the dioecious flowers, Menispermacea are readily distinguished by their solitary 

 ovules. The remarkable position of the indefinite ovules of all the genera of Lar- 

 dizabalacea except Decaisnea, the anatropous seeds, and the minute embryo, are 

 other important distinctions. The compound leaves of Lardizabalacea exist in 

 Burasaia, which was by Decaisne doubtfully referred to that Order, but which Mr. 

 Miers places in Menispe, naacea. Its structure appears to us to be quite interme- 

 diate between the two ; but though the anatropous ovules are anomalous in Menisper- 

 macea, the seed has, according to Thouars, the divaricating cotyledons of the tribe 

 Tinosporece. The genus Lardizabala has amphitropous seeds, excavated on one side, 

 so as to resemble those of Tinospora, but their minute embryo is not Menispermeous. 



Anonacea, which in general are so very distinct in habit and characters, are yet 

 immediately connected with Menispermacea by those genera which have definite 

 stamens, as well as by the remarkable occurrence of ruminated albumen in several 

 genera of Menispermacea. The abnormal genus Pycnarrhena approaches in habit 

 to such aberrant Anonacea as Stelechocarpms and Guatteria pallida. 



Schizandracea form the link which connects Menispermacea with Magnoliacea ; 

 but the relationship is not very near, except by means of Sabia, which is very closely 

 allied to both Orders ; and by the amphitropous ovules of both. 



^Notwithstanding the close relationship which is now fully established as existing 



Natural Orders, and are not of universal occurrence in them. Mr. Miers' condyle 

 we shall call processus wit ms putaminis, and we shall designate it as condyliformis, 

 when (as in TWacora) it resembles a condvle iu form. 



