Stephania.] flora indica. 



195 



dmded to the base into three or Rve divergent, almost acicular teeth. The ovule is 

 inserted considerably below the middle of the ventral suture, and the chalazal end is 

 rounded, while the upper end is elongated and gradually narrowed towards the apex. 

 I ne inflorescence is also often different from that of the other tribes, but it is pecu- 

 liar in each genus, and in Clssampelos the male cymes are very like those of Peri- 

 campylus. The leaves are generally, but not always, peltate. 



10. STEPHANIA, Lour. 



Ciypea, Blame ; Stephania, Clypca, et Ueocarpus, Mters. 



Mas. Sepala 6-10, biserialia, ovalia vel obovata. Petala 3-5, obo- 



vata, carnosa. Fcem. Sepala 3-5. Petala totidem, carnosa. Drupa 



solitaria ; putamen compressum, bippocrepiforrae, dorso tuberculatum, 



ad latera utrinque excavatum et foraraine circulari perforatum. — Fru- 



tices scandenteSy foliis plerumque peltatis, inflorescentia axillari umbel- 

 lata. 



Asa Gray has pointed out the inconstancy of the character derived from the num- 

 ber of parts in each verticil of the flower, and has accordingly reduced Mr. jVliers* 

 genus Ciypea, which is not marked by any striking characters of vegetation or in- 

 florescence. As they now stand, the genera of Cissampelidece are all very distinct in 

 inflorescence ; but in several species the floral characters, of the female especially, are 

 still imperfectly known. 



In Stephania rotunda a piece of stem, six to eight years old, is about half an inch 

 m diameter, of a spongy consistence, with much cellular tissue. Pith of large, loose, 

 elongated utricles. Medullary rays and hark the same ; all full of starch-granules. 

 Epidermis smooth, covered with longitudinal rimae of tumid cells, with projecting 

 lips. Wood-wedges twelve, cuneate, with broad medullary rays, formed of punctate 

 pleurenchyma, and large vessels whose walls arc covered with very narrow, oblique, 

 transversely elongated discs, each with a mesial dark line. Liher a very narrow ar- 

 cuate line of pleurenchyma opposite each wood- bundle, and sometimes confluent into 

 a narrow zone of liber ; it does not increase after the first year. Bark tolerably 

 broad, cellular, with scattered masses of sclerogen cells ; circumference of many layers 

 of radially compressed cells. It is thus almost identical in structure with Tinospora, 

 In S. elegans the base of a portion of stem of great length, but not many years 

 old, and one-fourth of an inch in diameter, is moderately woody, seven-angled ; an- 

 gles opposite as many wedges of wood of ordinary menispermous tissue. Pith nar- 

 row, of loose hexagonal cellular tissue. Medullary rays very large, as broad as the 

 wood-wedges. 



Among Dr. Hooker's Sikkim Menispermacea there is a specimen in young fruit 

 which seems to constitute an undescribed species of this genus. The leaves are 

 broad ovate, acuminate, cordate at base, not peltate, thin, pale below, palmately 

 seven-nerved, glabrous, except the nerves, which are slightly adpressed-hairy be- 

 neath. They are 5 inches long, 4£ broad, and the slender petioles are 3 inches in 

 length. The female inflorescence is umbellate on a long peduncle, with subulate 

 bracts. The young fruits are subsessile, in heads, at the apex of thick fleshy rays, 

 i inch long. There is in the Hookerian Herbarium a very similar specimen, without 

 flower or fruit, from Garhwal, collected by Major Madden, in which the leaves are 

 pubescent underneath. 



1. S. elegans (H.f. et T.) ; foliis elongato-deltoideis acuminatis basi 

 truncatia vel cordatis teuuiter coriaceis glaberrimis, urnbellis longe pe- 

 dunculitis, umbellulis laxifloris. 



Hab. Khasia ! Assam! Sikkim ! Kumaon, Sir. et IVint. t a planitie 

 ad alt. 6-7000 pe d.!~(Fl. per totum rest.) (r. /•.) 



