252 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacez. 
Mr, W. H. Baxter, and Mr. Cox for the names of, and oppor- 
tunities of examining, many of the exotic plants mentioned in 
this paper. 
Edenbridge, Sept. 10, 1864. 
[To be continued. } 
XXX.—On the Menispermacee. 
By Joun Mizrs, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 
[Continued from p. 103.] 
15. Truracora. 
Tus genus was first proposed by Colebrook, in 1819, for the 
Menispermum polycarpon, Roxb.; but, as he was unacquainted 
with its carpological features, the genus was not adopted by 
subsequent botanists. DeCandolle, in his ‘ Prodromus’ (1824), 
did not recognize it; for he named the same plant Cocculus 
acuminatus : from that time it continued unnoticed until 1851 
(Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vii. 36), when I first pointed out the 
identity of the two plants, and described the structure of the 
seed; and this at once established the validity of Tilacora. 
This genus, peculiar to Asia, is represented in the New World 
by Abuta, Batschia, and Anelasma: all nearly correspond in 
their floral structure, and resemble one another in the remark- 
able development of the seed—features which entitle them to 
rank in a distinct tribe, the Tiliacoree. It is surprising that 
the authors of the ‘ Flora Indica’ and of the ‘ Genera Plantarum? 
have refused to acknowledge the validity of this very natural 
group, and have placed these genera in the same tribe with 
Cocculus, thus mingling in confusion genera with a very rumi- 
nated albumen and a very slender embryo having incumbent coty- 
ledons as much attenuated as their very slender radicle, with 
other genera having a simple albumen and an embryo with 
accumbent, broad, foliaceous cotyledons—characters perfectly 
irreconcileable in any arrangement that lays claim to consistency. 
The flowers in this genus, though usually dicecious, are some- 
times polygamous; they have nine to twelve sepals in ternate 
series, the three internal ones being much larger, and valvate in 
eestivation ; they have six minute petals appearing like nectarial 
scales, and six stamens placed opposite to them, all inserted to- 
gether upon a short columnar receptacle, on which three puncti- 
form rudimentary ovaries are placed. In the numerous speci- 
mens of Tiliacora that I have seen, I have not yet found a female 
flower; I have, however, met with two species in which they are 
polygamous : in one case there are six petals, only three stamens, 
