Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacefe. 11 



II. — On the Menispermacese. 

 By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



[Continued from vol. xix. p. 330.] 



50. Pycnarrhena. 



This genus was established by me in 1851 upon an Indian 

 plant in the Wallichian Collection. It is easily recognized by 

 its oblong, acuminated, simply penninerved leaves, npon short 

 and remarkably tumid petioles : this manner of nervation, 

 though less frequent, is not rare among the Monspermacece, 

 for it occurs also in Hyperbcena, Antitaxis, Penianthus, Clambus, 

 Elissarrhena, Spirospermum, and Rhaptonema. It is also remarka- 

 ble for having nine stamens almost without filaments, or, rather, 

 as many 2-celled anthers, crowded in three series so as to form a 

 sessile central head, after the manner oiAnamirta; the anthers are 

 transversely oval, 2-valved, gaping by a common horizontal suture. 

 The drupe is oval, with the vestige of the style placed a little 

 above the middle on the ventral face ; the putamen is reniformly 

 oval, somewhat compressed, thin and testaceous, the seed being 

 appended to the slight intrusion of an almost obsolete con- 

 dyle on the ventral side; the embryo is exalbuminous; the co- 

 tyledons, occupying almost the whole space of the cell, are very 

 fleshy, accumbent, lunately incurved at the apex towards the 

 ventral face, where the minute I'adicle points to the persistent 

 style. The genus comes near to Antitaxis. 



Pycnarrhena, nob. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepula 6-9, ter- 

 natim disposita, exteriora gradatim minora et bracteiformia, 

 3 interiora multo majora, cuneatim ovalia, valde concava, 

 jestivatione imbricata. Petala 6, sepalis breviora, cuneata, 

 transversim latiora, apice subtruncata, lateribus paulo oblique 

 involutis, membranacea. Stamina 9, in glomerulum centraleni 

 crebriter aggregata ; filamenta brevissima, tenuia, fere obso- 

 leta; antherfe subglobosse, cruciatim sulcata;, sej)to transverso 

 bivalvatim hiantes, loculo autico septulo verticali diviso, hinc 

 insequaliter 3-locellata3. — Fl. Foein. ignoti. Dnipa gibboso- 

 ovata, styli vestigio facie ventrali supra medium notata, 

 glabra : putmiien subreniformi-ovatum, paulo compressum, 

 la^ve, chartaceo-testaceum, 1-loculare; condijlus e sinu ven- 

 trali intra loculum paulo intrusus, hinc convexiusculus. Se- 

 men loculo conforme, exalbuminosum ; integumcntum tcnuiter 

 membranaceum, facie ventrali condylo affixum ; enibnjo locu- 

 lum implens ; cutyledones magnae, carnosse, accumbentes, 

 apice incumbentim incurvee, radicula minima supcra ad stylum 

 spectante multoties longiores. 



Frutices Indim urientalis et msulanim indigeni ; rami riyidi, 



