Tmmutcium.] flora indica. 205 



leviter trisulcum, sulcis longitudinalibus, vasa nutrientia continentibus, intus trieos- 

 tatum, inter crura tenuissimuiii. Semen putamini confornie. Testa tenuissima, mem 

 branacea, fusca, facie interna crassiuscula. Embryo seinini conformis, amygdalinus, 

 suberoso-camosus, leviter sulcatus. Radicula styli cicatricem spectans, brevissima. 

 Cotyledones elongate, plano-convexse, semieylindrica?, uncinate, apice obtusse, longi- 

 tudinaliter leviter sulcatse. 



Vie have placed this very remarkable but unfortunately little-known plant provi- 

 sionally in the genus Fibraurea, on account of the resemblance of the leaves and 

 general aspect. We obtained only one fruiting branch, which was brought to us soon 

 after our arrival in the Khasia, from an elevation of about 3000 feet, and every effort 

 to procure more was unsuccessful. The fruit of Fibraurea is still almost unknown, 

 but immature imperfect specimens in Mr. Bentham's Herbarium resemble what the 

 young fruit of this plant may be assumed to be. 



F. Hamatocarpa is undoubtedly one of the most interesting plants of this family 

 which have yet been found. The very large size of the fruit, and its peculiar struc- 

 ture, are alike unique in the Order. It is nevertheless, though exalbuminous, an 

 undoubted Menisperinaceous plant. The two arms of the putamen are not united 

 by a bony plate, as in all the other elongated-seeded plants of the Order, but the 

 nutrient vessels pass from the base of the drupe to the bottom of the sinus of the 

 curved seed, just as in Cocculus or P achy gone. 



A piece of stem several years old, and i inch in diameter, is firm and woody, not 

 shrinking in drying. Bark smooth, polished, scarcely furrowed. Pith one-fifth the 

 diameter of stem, very firm and woody, wholly formed of long tubular cylindrical 

 thick-walled cells, with square extremities placed end to end. Medullary rays about 

 forty, of very much radially elongated compressed mural cells. Bark a very thin 

 cellular layer. Wedges of wood long, narrow, gradually broader outwards, of nume- 

 rous dotted pleurenchyma tubes and large vessels, whose walls are covered with innu- 

 merable transverse bars ; there are also a few spiral vessels towards the axis. Liber- 

 bundle semilunar, placed in contact with the wood. 



GENERA B UBIJE TRIB US, FR UCTU IGNOTO. 



15. TINOMISCIUM, Miers. 



Mas. Sepala 9 ; 3 exteriora parva, ovata, acuta, bracteis 1-2 mini- 

 mis confornribus stipata; 6 interiora conformia, exterioribus paullo 

 latiora. Petala 6, sepalis interioribus parum breviora, oblonga, mem- 

 branacea, marginibus inflexis. Stamina 6 ; jilamenta planiuscula ; an- 

 therce oblongse, adnata?, extrorse biloculares. — Frutex scandens lactescent, 

 petiolis elongatis basi incrassatis et Jlexuosis, pseudo-subarticulatis, foliis 

 basi trinerviis caterum penninervis, floribus racemosis. 



There is nothing in the male flower of this plant to guide us as to its immediate 

 affinity, for, though the technical character agrees with Tinospora, the appearance of 

 the flowers and the whole habit are very different. Mr. Mien has conjectured that 

 it belongs to his tribe Heterocrine a, and we have, at p. 179, described a fruit which 



drying. A sec- 



we think probably belongs to a nearly allied species. 



The wood of Tinomiscuun is hard, and does not c^-« „ — ^- 



tion half an inch in diameter presents a broad pith, and twenty-five to thirty wood- 

 wedges, divided by moderatelv broad medullary rays. The general arrangement is as 

 ia Pericampylus, but the liber-bundles evidently increase anuually, and there are no 

 traces of periodic deposits of wood. 



1. T. petiolare (Miers in Taylor's Annals, ser. 2. vii. 44); foliis 

 ovali-oblongis acuminata glabris, racemis elongatis fusco-touientosis. 

 Cocculus petiolaiis, //a//. Cat. 4964 I 



