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198 flora indica. [Menispermaceae 



Drupa subglobosae. Putamen compressum, dorso tuberculatum, lateri- 

 bus utrinque excavatum. — Frutices scandentes vel suberecti, inflorescen- 

 tia masciUa cymosa, foeminea racemosa floribm ad axilla* bractearum 

 rotundarum fasciculatis. 



The female flowers of this plant have usually been described very differently, as 

 possessing a lateral calyx of one sepal, with one petal in its axil, and no one seems 

 to have adverted to the anomalous nature of such an arrangement. The composi- 

 tion of the so-called petal is generally indicated by the existence of two nerves. It 

 is often emarginate, and we have several times seen it bipartite to the very base. 

 The female flower is thus evidently analogous in structure to that of Cyclea. "With 

 regard to the lateral position usually ascribed to the bract and sepal, they are cer- 

 tainly opposite the ovary, and are, therefore, more probably anterior. 



The only Indian Cissampelos is very widely diffused throughout the tropics. 

 Except one West African plant, the remainder of the genus is American. Several 

 species are erect or suberect, and quite distinct ; but many of the scandent ones 

 have very slender claims to be considered species, and will probably be reduced on a 

 careful revision of the genus. 



Cissampelos acuminata, DC, is not determinable with certainty without an au- 

 thentic specimen. Prom the description, it is evidently no Cissampelos. It may be 

 Limacia triandra or cuspidata, but the very short petioles (two to three lines long) 

 seem rather to point to Cocculus laurifolius. 



Our Indian Cissampelos has rather soft and spongy wood ; a section of a stem one- 

 fourth of an inch in diameter, and several years old, presents twelve to fifteen large 

 irregularly formed wood-wedges, separated by narrow medullary rays ; these wedges 

 reach about the same distance from the bark, but do not all advance inwards to the 

 pith. Bark a dense compact mass of homogeneous tissue, applied close to the liber, 

 and transversed by longitudinal canals full of a red secretion. Liber-bundles isolated, 

 opposite each wedge of wood, and in contact with the cambium layer, separated from 

 one another by broad wedge-shaped terminations of the medullary rays. Pith spongy 

 in the centre, and traversed with canals like the bark, becoming denser towards the 

 wood, and very dense and opaque in the medullary rays. We have no large speci- 

 mens of this species to compare with Decaisne's description and figure of C. Pareira, 

 but the structure of the stem differs in no respect from that of the first wood-zone of 

 that plant. 



1. C. Pareira (Linn. Spec. PL 1473) ; scandens, foliis reniformi- 

 bus vel rotundatis vel late cordatis plus minus pubescentibus, cymis 

 masculis longe pedunculatis multifloris pilosis, racemis fcemineis brac- 

 teas rotundatas amplas gerentibus, drupis subglobosis hirsutis. — Lam. 

 III. t. 830 ;DC. Syst. i. 533, Prod. i. 100 ; Macfadyen, Fl. Jamaic. i. 

 16 ; Blanco, Fl. Filip. 815. C. Caapeba, linn. Sp. 1473 ; DC. Syst. 

 i. 536, Prod. i. 101 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 842; Rich. Cub. 58. C._Coc- 

 culus, Poir. Diet. v. 9 {excl. syn. paucis). C. con vol v ulacea, Willd. ; 

 DC. Syst. i. 536, Prod. i. 101 ; Wall. Cat. 4979 ; W. et A. Prod. i. 14; 

 Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 842 ; Hassk. PI. Jav. Rar. 107. C. Mauritiana, 

 Thouars, Journ. Rot. 1809. ii. t. 3-4 ; DC. Syst. i. 535, Prod. i. 100, 

 {non Wall. Cat.). C. pareiroides, DC. Ess. Med. C. orbiculata, 

 DC. Syst. i. 537, Prod. i. 101. C. hirsuta, DC. Syst. i. 535, Prod, L 

 101. C. tomentosa, DC. Syst. i. 535, Prod. i. 101. C. microcarpa, 

 DC. Syst. i. 534, Prod. i. 101 ; Mac/. Fl. Jam. i. 17. C. hernandifolia, 

 Wall. Cat. 4977 A! Bpartimf C! I! C. obtecta, Wall. Cat. 4981 ! 

 C. gracilis, St. Hil. Fl. Bras. Mer. i. 54. C. mucronata, A. Rich, Fl. 



