98 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacee. 
again in 1837, but only in fruit; this enabled me to ascertain 
its peculiar carpological structure—an investigation that after- 
wards led me into an examination of the whole family. In 1845 
my son sent me, from nearly the same locality, an imperfect 
specimen of another plant, which, from the similar form of its 
leaves and petioles and the structure of its flowers, appeared 
like a male species, and accordingly, in my “ Notes on Meni- 
spermacee,” in 1851, I alluded to it under this belief; for its 
floral parts, though in quinary numbers, presented the usual 
biserial arrangement of alternate sepals and ten stamens, the 
outer five being quite free, with the same number of fleshy 
scale-like petals at their base, while the five internal sta- 
mens were monadelphous for half their length. This so far 
appeared to correspond with Coscinium, Chasmanthera, and Pse- 
lium, except in the number of its parts; but, as I had met with 
the number five in other genera, the whole structure seemed 
conformable with Menispermacee. It is true that I found an 
occasional flower which, with a similar arrangement, presented 
the addition of a single 1-celled, l-ovular ovary in the centre ; 
but I had observed a similar occurrence in Anomospermum and 
Tiliacora. A more careful examination of the stem of the plant 
afterwards convinced me that it was not Menispermaceous, but 
a species of Jatropha, with occasional hermaphrodite flowers. 
The fact is worth recording, as it offers another comcidence in 
the resemblance of the male flowers of some Euphorbiacee 
to those of Menispermacee, as St. Hilaire long before poimted 
out in the case of some species of Phyllanthus. The authors of 
the ‘ Flora Indica’ (p. 171) have made some valuable observa- 
tions, showing several points of resemblance in the floral struc- 
ture of these two families; and the case above cited affords a 
strong proof of the truth of their remarks. The authors of the 
new ‘Genera Plantarum,’ in excluding Odontocarya from the 
order, and referring it to Euphorbiacee, probably had the cir- 
cumstance above mentioned in their recollection; but they for- 
got at the same time that the genus maintains its ground upon 
the unquestionable organization of its seed, upon the habit of 
the plant, and upon the structure of its wood. The chief pecu- 
liarity of the genus consists in its putamen, which has a scuti- 
form condyle as in Calycocarpum, Aspidocarya, Jateorhiza, Para- 
bena, and Rhigiocarya, and it is covered with a matted, short, 
papillose coating, imbedded in the fleshy pulp of its mesocarp, 
as in Jateorhiza, Burasaia, and Hematocarpus. Most of the 
species resemble Tinospora in their habit and in their cordate, 
glabrous, membranaceous leaves upon long petioles; the inflo- 
rescence is in slender racemes, longer than the petiole; the 
fructiferous racemes are somewhat longer, and, in the typical 
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