Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacez. 13 
four petals in the ¢ flower, its fruit being unknown. Ignoring 
these well-marked distinctions, the authors of the ‘ Genera 
Plantarum ” amalgamate Clypea, Ileocarpus, and Homocnemia 
with Stephania, and in the four genera thus confounded together 
they recognize only three species, whereas I have here enume- 
rated, under well-defined characters, twenty-six species of Ste- 
phania, nine of Clypea, one of Lleocarpus, and one of Homocnemia, 
making in all thirty-seven species. Much perplexity has arisen 
from the incomplete characters of the several species hitherto 
described by botanists, so that it has been difficult to reduce 
into consistent order many of the plants that have been referred 
to them; and, to add to this confusion, most of the specimens 
now existing in herbaria appear to have been named at hazard : 
no one seems to have taken the trouble to examine the structure 
of the flowers, in which, notwithstanding their minute size, 
good characters are found, corroborative of other features 
obtainable from the differences that exist in the leaves, petioles, 
and inflorescence. 
The species are found chiefly on the Indian continent and the 
islands of its great archipelago, their range extending eastward 
as far as China, Japan, and Australia, and westward to the limit 
of Africa: the genus is therefore quite foreign to the continent 
of America. It may be here observed that the hairs of the 
pubescence, whenever found in this genus, are short and articu- 
lated, as they are likewise in Clypea. 
Srepuanta, Lour. ;—Clypea, W. & A. (non Bl.) ;—Cissampelos 
(tn parte) auctorum;—Flores dioici. Mase. Sepala 6, spa- 
thulato-oblonga vel lmearia, biseriata, quorum 3 interiora 
latiora, membranacea, zestivatione imbricata. Petala 3, sepalis 
exterioribus opposita, cuneato-rotunda vel ovata, breviora, 
carnosula. Stamen unicum, centrale; filamentum teres, se- 
palis zquilongum vel brevius ; anthera annularis, 6-locellata, 
ad marginem connectivi peltatim affixa, rima horizontali dehis- 
cens.—Fam. Sepala 3, cuneato-oblonga. Petala 3, sub- 
rotunda, subcuneata, carnosula. Stamina nulla. Ovarium 
ovatum, gibbum, glabrum, 1-loculare, ovu/o solitario parieti 
appenso. Stylus subnullus. Stigma subsessile, excentricum, 
inequaliter 3—6-laciniatum ; laciniis acutis, subreflexis. Drupa 
carnosa, glabra; putamen osseum, obovatum, valde compressum, 
l1-loculare, loculo peripherico et hippocrepiformi circa con- 
dylum voluto, utrinque seriebus 2 concentricis tuberculorum 
liris seepe connexis extus armato; condylus excentralis, lamini- 
formis, discoideus, utrinque subconcavus, medio foranae 
distincto perforatus. Semen hippocrepiforme, dorso convexum, 
ventre subplanum; inteyumentum tenuiter membranaceum, 
