188 flora indica. {Menispermacea } . 



quite distinct from that occupied by the seed, which is like that of other CoccuJea. 

 These large cavities are separated from one another by a thiu double plate, in the few 

 nuts we have seen perforated by a hole, so as to connect the two cavities; this is, 

 however, possibly artificial. The funicle or nutritive cord probably passes to the 

 seed between these plates. These cavities are, in the dried state, empty, and are 

 covered externally by a thin arch of the putameu ; they communicate by very narrow 

 canals with its outer surface near the base of the drupe, and evidently correspond to 

 the deep external excavations of the putamen of Cocculus or Stephania, The bony 

 arch by which they are covered springs from the sides of the seed-containing cavity. 

 We have examined the wood of three species of this genus, and find nearly the 

 same structure in all. 



In L. velutina a piece of stem, several years old, and half an inch in diameter, is 

 tolerably firm and woody in consistence, reddish inside, furrowed and pubescent exter- 

 nally. Pith two-thirds the diameter of the stem, central parts of soft utricular tissue, 

 gradually passing externally into long, narrow, woody tubes, which in a transverse 

 section resemble a thick zone of liber, but have square extremities, traversed by ca- 

 nals full of red fluid. Medullary rays dense. Wedges of wood close to circumfe- 

 rence, about forty, broadly ovate, rounded towards the bark and pith, of very large 

 barred vessels and dotted plenrenchyma. Liber -bundles semilunar, placed at outer 

 extremity of each wood-bundle, and more or less entangled in it. Medullary rays 

 of dense, radially elongated mural cells. Baric a very thin layer of hexagonal cellular 

 tissue. 



In L. oblonga the whole substance of the wood-wedges appears, in a transverse 

 section, to be formed of broad vessels and liber, which latter, in a vertical section, 

 consists of pleurenchyma, with perforated walls. The liber seems to be hardly at all 

 added to in these species after the first year. 



In L. cuspidata a two or three years old portion of stem is of a dense woody con- 

 sistence. Pith one-third the diameter of stem, of loose, hexagoual, soft, spongy 

 cellular tissue in the centre, passing into cubical cells towards circumference, and 

 then lengthening into a dense, hard woody layer of long tubes, with truncate ends. 

 Medullary rays large, of minute, cubical, thick- walled cells. Wood-zones forty nar- 

 row wedges of dotted plenrenchyma, and large transversely marked vessels. Liber- 

 bundle rem" form. Bark a very narrow, dense zone of cellular tissue. A second 

 small deposit of liber is often seen outside each wood-zone. 



I. L. triandra (Miers in Taylor's Annals, ser. 2. vii. 43); foliis 

 oblongo-lanceolatis acutis glabris, paniculis racemiformibus folio brevi- 

 oribus, floribus triandris. — Menispermura triandrum, Roxb. FL hid. iii. 

 816. Cocculus triandras, Colebr. in Linn. Tr. xiii. 64; Wall. Cat. 

 4962! 4959 C! 4958 L! 



Hab. Malaya ad Penang, Roxb.! Pegu prope Prome, Wall.! — {v.s.) 



Frutex scandens; ramulis puberulis demum glabratis. Folia 2-4 poll, longa, 

 f-H poll, lata, petiolis puberulis ^-pollicarihus, basi rotundata, triplinervia, apice 

 acuta vel acuminata cum mucrone, tenuia. Panicula? J— IJ-pollicares, puberuhe; 

 rarauli bracteis minutis deciduis stipati, abbreviate 3-5-flori. Flores flavi, minutis- 

 simi. Sepala exteriora minuta, interiora ovalia. Petala 6, anguste obovata, in- 

 tegra. Stamina 3, sepalis exterioribus opposita; Jlfamenta carnosa, cuueato-oblonga, 

 erecta; anthera? terminales, biloculares, loculis adnatis divaricatis lateralibus. 



Mr. Miers constitutes of this a distinct section, characterized by the absence of half 

 the number of stamens. We agree with him in considering this character not to be of 

 generic importance, and we further think that the species is too nearly allied in habit 

 and characters to the two next, both of which are hexandrous, to make it desirable to 

 place it in a distinct section. Mr. Miers has noted in the Wallichian collection that 

 the .specimen of Cocculus Wightiauus, from Prome, 4959 0, belongs to this species; 

 but be seems to have afterwards regarded it as distinct, as he states in Taylor's An- 



