Menispermacea.] flora indica. 175 



extend west along the lower and outer Himalaya, but only one (which is also a Ja- 

 panese species) is found in the middle and western parts of that chain, without ex- 

 tending to the eastward. In the mountains they are confined to the subtropical 

 and lower part of the temperate region, never rising above 7000 feet. On the 

 whole, Menispermacew are less intolerant of dryness than Anonacea, several species 

 inhabiting the most arid parts of Hindostan, and even the Panjab and Sindh, whence 



they stretch across the hot belt of Southern Asia, through Arabia and Egypt, to 

 Senegal. 



The genera and species of Menispermacece were left in a very unsatisfactory state 

 by De Candolle, who, possessing no materials from which to study the Order in 

 detail, and finding it impossible to reconcile with one another the chaotic descrip- 

 tions of previous authors, was obliged to content himself with reproducing tbem as he 

 found them, at the same time urgently recommending the study of the Order to tro- 

 pical botanists. Considerable light was thrown on the structure of the fruit in a 

 paper by Mr. Colebrooke, published in the * Transactions of the Linneau Society* in 

 1822; but, his knowledge of the Order being confined to the species indigenous in 

 Bengal, or cultivated in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, he contented himself by esta- 

 blishing several new genera, all of which have been found sound. 



For a long time little further progress was made in the study of the Order, though 

 isolated observations were contributed by A. St. Hilaire, Blume, A. Richard, and 

 others. In the ' Bijdragen,' Blume instituted the genus Clypea, which was afterwards 

 discovered to be identical with Stephania of Loureiro. The first important step in 

 advance was made by Wight and Arnott, who in 1832 divided the Indian species 

 of the genus Cocculus into sections according to the nature of the embryo, and thus 

 laid the foundation for the more complete study of the Order by Miers, who has 

 devoted much time and labour to the investigation of this very difficult family, and, by 

 making careful analyses of the flowers and fruit of all the species to which he could 

 obtain access, has acquired a very complete knowledge of their structure, and has 

 therefore been able to impart a degree of precision to the ordinal characters and 

 those of the main groups, which they did not before possess. 



It is much to be regretted that Mr. Miers has not made public his complete mo- 

 nograph of the Order, for which such ample materials are in his possession, but has 

 confined himself to publishing a very concise sketch of his views in Taylor's 'Annals,' 

 and in Lindley's ' Vegetable Kingdom.' We have thus been compelled to follow out 

 for ourselves the details of structure of the Indian species, guided, of course, by the 

 generally accurate indications contained in Mr. Miers' papers, and by the brief dia- 

 noses there to be found. It will be seen that the result of this study has been the 

 adoption of most of the great groups and subdivisions proposed by Mr. Miers. We 

 have, however, arrived at different conclusions regarding the limits of genera, the 

 uumber of which we think Mr. Miers has unnecessarily augmented, by placing too 

 great reliance upon characters derived from the shape and number of the petals and 

 stamens, and slight modifications of the putamen. Where his genera are founded 



upon characters derived from the seed, it will be seen that we have invariably adopted 

 them. 



Mr. Miers' views as to the limits of species can only be gathered from the notes 

 and remarks appended to his paper in Taylor's ' Annals,' already referred to, the ex- 

 treme brevity of which often makes his meaning doubtful. In several cases, how- 

 ever, to which we shall refer more particularly under their respective genera, we are 

 satisfied that he regards as distinct, forms which are either certainly not so, or are 

 so imperfectly known that their distinctness cannot be confidently asserted. In such 

 cases we have not hesitated to dissent -from his views, as we are deeply impressed 

 with the importance of avoiding the addition of imperfectly -defined species to our 

 lists. 



Cocculus palmatus, Wall. Cat. 4953 ! [Jateorhiza, Miers), from the east coast of 

 Africa, and Cocculns hexagynus, Wall. Cat. 4968 ! (Cocculus ovafifolius, DC), from 

 China, are not natives of British India. Cocculus flavicans, Wall. Cat. 4976, is a 

 species of AnisophyUum (Trtracrypta, Gardner). Mr. Miers' gSMt Antitaxis, of 



