178 flora indica. [Menispermacetf 



Mr. Miers is inclined to think that Gsertner is mistaken in representing the coty- 

 ledons as perforated with holes, and that they are rather lacerated at the margins. 

 They lie very near the surface of the albumen, and are not flat, but are irregularly 

 folded over undulating tubercles, produced by the ruminating plates which project 

 from the condyle, and are so thin as to be with difficulty detached from the albumen 

 without injury. This may have led Gsertner into error ; but the point is still doubt- 

 ful, Mr. Miers' materials, like our own, having been very scanty. 



The nuts of Coscinium which we have seen were all deprived of the sarcocarp, so 

 that the position of the style and the insertion of the fruit could not be determined. 



The species of Coscinium are entirely Indian. The wood, which has a deep yellow 

 colour, affords an indifferent yellow dye, and is esteemed as a drug by the natives of 

 Ceylon, but does not appear to be active in its qualities. A few years ago it was 

 imported into England in some quantity, on the supposition that it would answer 

 as a substitute for the Calumba root {Jateorhiza palmata, Miers), but the specula- 

 tion was unsuccessful. 



The wood of Coscinium may be thus described : — A several years old portiou of 

 stem is rather cellular and spongy, furrowed externally, and \ inch in diameter. 

 Pith broad, half diameter of stem, central part of large, loose, hexagonal tissue, to- 

 wards the exterior gradually becoming smaller, longer and denser, and finally passing 

 into a woody tissue of vertically elongated cells, with truncated apices. Wood-wedges 

 small, very numerous, 40-70, closely placed, of dotted pleurenchyma, and large hexa- 

 gonal scalariform vessels, and occasionally spiral vessels towards the pith. Liber- 

 bundles very much radially elongated, annually increasing, and with obscure traces of 

 annual rings distant from one another. Bark tolerably thick, of small cellular tissues, 

 with a continuous very narrow zone of slender liber-tubes a short way from the cir- 

 cumference. 



1. C* fenestration (Colebrooke in Linn. Tr. xiii. 65) ; foliis fere 

 rotundatis basi cordatis vel subtruncatis subtus flavidotomentosis, pe- 

 tiolis (nisi in plantis junioribus) vix peltatis, capitulis in axillis urabel- 

 latis. — Miers in Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4658, et in Pharm. Journ. xii. 185. 



C. Wallichianum et C. Wightianum, Miers in Taylor's Annals, ser. 2. 

 vii. 37. Menispermum fenestratum, Gcertn. Fr. i. 219. t. 46./. 5 ; DC. 

 Syst. i. 541, Prod. i. 103 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 809. Cocculus Blumea- 

 nus, Wall. Cat. 4971 partita / Pereiria medica, Lindl. FL Med. p. 370. 



Hab. In Zeylania ! in Peninsula (loco non indicato), Wight! Pe- 

 nang ? Wall. ! — (v. s.) 



Frutex alte scandens. Hamuli juniores dense incano-tomentosi, crassiores glabri- 

 usculi, eleganter striatuli. Folia ampla, basi subcordata, 7-9-nervia, coriacea, supra 

 glabra, subtus incana, venulis crebris reticulata, 5-7 poll, longa et fere sequilata, ju- 

 niora oblongo-deltoidea, acuminata, peltata. Pelioli 3-5-pollicares, incani, basi torti 

 et dilatati. Capitula florum pedicello pollicari suffulta, diametro |—f-pollicaria, in 

 axillis vel ad axillas foliorum delapsorum fasciculata. Flores subsessiles, virides, fulvo- 

 tomentosi. Petala rotundata, acuta, inius glabra et nervosa, patentia. Stamina 

 sterilia nervosa. JDrupa 1-3, calyce petalisque persistentibus stipatse, subglobosre, 

 villosse, diametro fere pollicares. 



The specimen of C. Blumeanum from Singapur, in the Wallichian Herbarium at 

 the Linnean Society, contains a fragment apparently of this species, without flower, 

 which Mr. Miers has called C. Wallichianum. Mr. Miers has also distinguished 

 C m Wightianum as a species, without assigning any characters. Dr. Wight's spe- 

 cimens exhibit only unexpauded flowers, but they seem identical with the Ceylon 

 plant. There is evidently some confusion in Mr. Miers' remarks, as C. Wightianum 

 is not included among Dr. WaUich's 4971, not having been communicated by Dr. 

 Wight to Dr. Wallich, but distributed separately by him under the name of Coscinium 

 fenestratum. 



