366 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacez. 
flower, which are not seen in Hypserpa. In this latter genus 
the flowers are always heteromerous, the more membranaceous 
sepals are conspicuously imbricated in stivation, and there are 
many other discrepant characters which it is not necessary to 
repeat here, as they have been already described. Limacia will 
therefore maintain its ground, distinct from Hypserpa, within 
the limits I pointed out thirteen years ago; but, as at that pe- 
riod I had not seen the fruit, Limacia was then placed among 
the Pachyyonee, in accordance with the meagre details of its 
structure given by Loureiro. When I first noticed this group 
of plants, I named it Stereoclea, on account of the peculiar esti- 
vation of its sepals ; but on seeing Loureiro’s plant in the British 
Museum, I instantly recognized it as the same: the previous 
name was therefore made to indicate the triandrous section, 
which for the present is retained im the genus, but which pro- 
bably will turn out to be distinct when its fruit is known. 
There is a general analogy between Limacia and Hypserpa in 
the form of the putamen, the kind of condyle, and the structure 
of the albuminous seed: the former has the same accumbent 
cotyledons as the latter; but the entire embryo is broader and 
more flattened, and there is a difference in the relative lengths 
of the radicle and cotyledons. The authors of the ‘ Flora Indica’ 
and of the ‘Genera Plantarum’ place Limacia in the same tribe 
with Cocculus; but it cannot consistently remain there, owing 
to the peculiar structure of the embryo. The species of Limacia 
are distributed through tropical Asia, the Eastern archipelago, 
China, and Japan; but the botanists above mentioned record 
only three of them. 
Limactra, Lour.—Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 9, im ordine ter- 
nario alternatim disposita, 6 exteriora minora, bracteiformia, 
3 interiora majora, concava, subrotunda, utrinque sericea, 
eestivatione arcte valvata, dein apicibus reflexis, marginibus 
basalibus conniventibus. Petala 6, subbiserialia, obovata, 
unguiculata, sepalis multo minora, lateribus inflexis stamina 
amplectentibus. Stamina 6 (interdum 3), libera, petalis sub- 
eequalia, ad eorum unguem adnata, et androecio centrali imo 
coalita ; filamenta subincurva, erecta, carnosula, apice incras- 
sata, interdum antice hirsuta; anthere conniventes, 2-lobe, 
cordate, marginibus rima longitudinali utrinque hiantes. 
Ovaria rudimentaria apice andrceci, punctiformia.—Fem. Se- 
pala et petala ut in mase. Stamina sterilia 6 (vel 3), eequalia; 
filamenta tenuiora, erecta, petalis involuta, apice (ex antheris 
effcetis) 2-loba. Ovaria 3, libera, sepalis interioribus opposita, 
gibba, dense hirsuta, gyneecio brevi hirsuto insita, 1-locularia, 
l-ovulata; stylus brevis; stigma excentricum, subtrilobum, 
