12 Mr. J. Miers on the Meiiispermacese. 



flexuosi, axillis nodosis et approaimafis ; folia oUonga, utrhiqve 

 subacuta, lucida, glaherrima, penninervia, svpra in nervis sul- 

 cata, petiolo hrevi, apice valde tumido et cavo : ])aniculpe ^ 

 perplurimce vel pauciores, supti'a-axiUareSyfasciculatce, interdum 

 brevissimoi et crebriter siibglumeratcp, aut laxe ramosa et petiolo 

 p)aulo longiores ; floribus parvis : in $ pedicelli pauci, axillares, 

 et \-flori. 



The characters of the following species will be given in the 

 third volume of the ' Contributions to Botany :' — 



1. Pycnarrhena plenijlora, nob. in Ann. Nat. Hist. 2 ser,. vii. 44; 

 — Pj'cnarrhena planiflora, Hook. ^' 7h. Fl. Ind. i. 206 ; — 

 Cocculus planiflorus, Wall, {pro errore typograpjhico vice 

 plenillori). — In India orientali : v. s. in herb. Soc. Linn. 

 S, Sylhet et in hort. Bot. Calc. cult. (Wall. Cat. 4961); 

 in herb. Hook. $ , Bengal (Griffiths). 



2. t wnef act a, noh. — In Borneo: v. s. in herb. Hook. ^, 



Bangarmassing (Motley, 357). 



3. mecistojihijUa, nob. — In Himalaya : v. s. in herb. Hook., 



Assam (Griffiths, 1264). 



51. Antitaxis. 



This genus was proposed by me in 1851 for a plant collected 

 in IMalacca by the late Mr. Griffiths, with male tiowers. It is 

 only lately that I have seen other specimens in fruit. It has 

 large lanceolate leaves, with alternate pinnate slender nerves, 

 anastomosing towards the margin, and with rather short pe- 

 tioles : in the ^ it has a few slender 1-llowered pedicels, fasci- 

 culated in each axil ; in the $ the inflorescence is similar. The 

 (J flower has eight sepals decussately arranged in opposite pairs, 

 the two inner series being larger, equal in size, and imbricated 

 in fEstivation ; it has two petals alternate with the inner pair of 

 sepals, and somewhat smaller than these, four stamens cruciately 

 placed opposite the petals, with filaments somewhat shorter than 

 they, fleshy, thickening upwards, the anthers partly immersed 

 in their summits, globular, 1-lobed, opening somewhat extrorsely 

 by a diagonally transverse fissure, showing two gaping lips, as 

 in Anelasma and Elissarrhena. The ? flower is unknown ; but 

 the drupes are subglobose and tomentose, with a somewhat 

 reniform putamen, which is chartaceous and brittle, with an 

 almost obsolete condyle in the sinus of the ventral side ; the 

 embryo is exalbuminous, reniformly orbicular, with large, fleshy, 

 cm'ving, accumbent cotyledons which nearly fill the cell, and a 

 very minute, somewhat superior radicle. The leaves are coria- 

 ceous, glabrous, shining, having a peculiar nervation resembling 



