Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 171 



paulo compressa, sursuni gradatim crassiora ; anthera bilobae, 

 exteriores subintrorsse, centrales subextrorsse, lobis connec- 

 tivo subexcurrente sejnnctis, filamento fere lateraliter adnatis, 

 rima lougitudinali subobliqua debiscentibus. — FL foem. ig- 

 noti. 

 Frutex scandens Africa occidentalis cequinoctialis ; ramuli dehiles; 

 folia ovata, cur data, apice acuminata, imo 5-nervia, pilis sparsis 

 munita : inflorescentia supra- axillaris, e pedicellis geminis uni- 

 floris ; pedicellus petiolo 2-plo longior ; flos pro ordine majus- 

 culus. 



The only known s])ecies will be fully described in the third, 

 volume of my ' Contributions to Botany/ 



Synclisia scabrida. — In Africa sequinoctiali : v. s. in herb. Hook., 

 Gaboon River (Mann, 986) ; Congo (C. Smith). 



57. Penianthus. 



Among the plants arranged under Fibraurea in the Hookerian 

 herbarium, I noticed one from the island of Fernando Po, which 

 is very different in habit, particularly in its leaves, which are 

 not triplinerved as in that genus ; its inflorescence, instead of 

 being a very long and laxly spreading panicle, is barely half an 

 inch long, consisting of a very short supra-axillary peduncle 

 that supports a number of umbellated 1-flowered pedicels of 

 half its length, all being pubescent. It is a female specimen, 

 its flowers having nine sepals in three series diminishing in size 

 outwards and imbricated in sestivation, six minute petals affixed 

 by their claws to the feet of as many sterile stamens seated 

 round a raised gynsecium which supports three short, gibbously 

 cylindrical, pilose ovaries, almost concealed (when seen from 

 above) by their very large sessile stigmata, which resemble those 

 of Calycocarpum. Its leaves are of considerable size, lanceolately 

 oblong, narrowing towards both extremities, and acuminated 

 at the summit, having many parallel divergent nerves that 

 archingly anastomose together near the margin, in which respect 

 they offer some resemblance to Pycnari'hena. I know of no 

 genus to which this plant can be referred. 



Penianthus, nob. — Flores dioici. Masc. ignoti. — FcRm. Sepala 

 9, alternatim in ordine ternario disposita, quorum 3 exteriora 

 minora et bracteiformia, 3 intermedia ovata, paulo majora, 

 glabra, 3 interiora adhuc majora, orbiculari-ovata, concava, 

 carnosula, marginibus membranaceis, glabra, sestivatione ira- 

 bricata. Petala 6, minima, staminibus opposita, late obovata, 

 erecta, subcarnosula. Stamina 6 sterilia, libera, ovarii dimidio 



12* 



