256 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermaceee. 
nally sericeous, very fleshy, and valvate in estivation; in Ane- 
lasma the corresponding sepals are glabrous, more membrana- 
ceous in texture, and (though slightly) are decidedly imbricated 
in eestivation. In Aduta, in the male flower, each stamen bears. 
a 2-lobed anther, the lobes separated from one another by a 
deep longitudinal channel or by a broader interval, and attached 
by their entire length to a broad filament ; each lobe opens late- 
rally by a vertical or oblique fissure: in Anelasma each stamen 
bears only a single globular anther, apicifixed upon, and half 
immersed. in, the summit of a broad fleshy filament, burst- 
ing across its apex by a transverse gaping fissure into two 
valves, antical and postical, and divided inside by a sep- 
tum parallel to the valves, as is well shown in Poppig’s figure. 
In the female flower, the structure of the sterile stamens in 
Anelasma is different: the ovaries are quite glabrous, with a 
different stigma, while in Aduta and Batschia the ovaries are 
densely pilose; the drupes in the two latter cases are thickly 
tomentose, while in Anel/asma they are quite glabrous. In the 
case of larger flowers, such differences as I have indicated would 
not fail to be recognized in their full importance, and there can 
be no justification for ignormg them, or considering them as 
too trivial, on account of their diminutive size. Here assuredly 
there is sufficient evidence to show that Anelasma ought not to 
be confounded with Aduta; but other differences will be seen 
when we come to speak of Anelasma. 
Until lately, I had maintained Batschia as an independent 
genus, distinguished from Abuta by its stamens, which are 
rigidly hispid, while the small globular cells of the anthers are 
separated by a much wider interval, and laterally imbedded in 
a very thick filament, sometimes so deeply as to be invisible 
from the front; and, furthermore, the species have glabrous 
leaves. As these characters sometimes run into one another, I 
have now retained Batschia as a section of Abuta, distinguished 
by the characters just mentioned. In Batschia, although the 
leaves are glabrous and generally smaller, they accord with 
Abuta in their ramified nervation, in which respect Anelasma 
differs from the whole group. All the species of Abuta seem to 
be scandent plants, while those of Batschia appear to be erect 
shrubs. When these plants are better known, I think it very 
likely that Batschia will establish its ght to rank as a distinet 
genus. 
While this paper is in the printer’s hands, I have received 
from Dr. Kichler the 25th Number of the ‘ Ratisbon Flora’ (July 
1864), giving an abstract of his arrangement of American Ment- 
spermee, already printed for Prof. von Martius’s ‘Flora Brasi- 
hensis.? Dr. Kichler has there adopted the views of other bota-. 
