Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacege. 261 



also differs in the number and form of its sepals, and in the 

 globular shape of its larger fleshy petals. 



Desmonema, nob. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, biseriata, 

 oblonga aut subovata, submembranacea, nervose picta, gla- 

 bra, 3 interiora exterioribus 2-plo longiora et 3-plo latiora, 

 sestivatione imbricata. Petala 6, biseriata, quorum 3 exteriora 

 cuneato-ovata, submembranacea, plana aut subconcava, sepalis 

 dimidio breviora, 3 interiora paululo breviora, 3-plo angus- 

 tiora, linearia, erecta, fusco-carnosula, longitudinaliter canali- 

 culata. Stamina 3, monadelpha, petalis sequilonga; fila- 

 menta longe ultra medium in columnam centralem coadunata, 

 sunimo libera, complanata, suberecta; anthertE subglobosse, 

 conniventes, apicifixse, 2-lob8e, lobis sulco laterali subextrorsum 

 et bivalvatim dehiscentibus. 



Frutex scandens Africce australis, habitufere Tinosporse ; folia del- 

 toideo-orbicularia, cor data, obtiisa, e basi 5-nervia, nervis extus 

 ramosis, glabra, membranacea, longiuscule petiolata : racemus (^ 

 simplex, supra- axillaris, folio sublongior, glaber ; rachis gra- 

 cilis, remotiuscule bracteolata ; pedicellus bracteola 2-plo lon- 

 gior, 1-florus ; ^o% parvus. 



The only species will be described in the third volume of the 

 ' Contributions to Botany/ 



Desmonema Caffra, nob. — In Africa australi : v. s. in herb. 

 Hook. S, Natal (Gerard, 1976). 



61. Rhaptonema. 



The plant here described is a native of Madagascar, and the 

 type of a new genus now proposed. It is a shrub of low growth, 

 with straight, somewhat slender, tomentose branchlets, with 

 oblong leaves having alternate nerves which anastomose every- 

 where with one another at short intervals, making thus a large 

 areolar network of veins which gives them a very peculiar ap- 

 pearance ; they are subpilose above, sulcate along the midrib, 

 furnished beneath with a yellowish pubescence, the petiole being 

 somewhat short and pubescent. The ^ inflorescence is a raceme- 

 like panicle, which springs from the axils of the young upper 

 leaves, and is therefore almost terminal ; the somewhat slender 

 rachis, which is covered with yellowish pubescence, is about half 

 the length of the ordinary leaves, having rather distant, very short 

 branches, with still shorter branchlets, which bear from one to 

 three flowers at their apex; the flower is small, consisting of 

 nine equal spathulately linear sepals, rounded at their apex, in 

 three alternate series ; six petals in two series, equal, rather 

 more than half the length of the sepals, oblong, narrowing at 



