264 Mr. J. Miers on the Meuispermacese. 



p. 206, et quoad inflorescentiam in tab. 37. fig. 4. — In Su- 

 rinamo, ad Paramaribo. 



63. DiSCIPHANIA. 



This is another genus of Dr. Eichler^s, described in Martius's 

 ' Flora Brasiliensis/ the type being a plant from the river 

 Amazonas, which bears a very strong resemblance to a Jateorhiza. 

 It is a climbing plant, strigosely pilose in every part, with some- 

 what ovate leaves, deeply cordate, leaving a broad sinus between 

 two rounded basal lobes, and divided at its summit into three 

 almost parallel lanceolate-oblong segments ; they are 5-7-nerved 

 at base, on a petiole three-fourths of the length of the blade. 

 It has one or two supra-axillary racemes with a slender rachis as 

 long as the petiole, very pilose, spicated, with many alternate, 

 approximated sessile flowers ; each flower rises out of a small 

 pilose bract, is glabrous, depressed-globose or subtrigonous in 

 the bud ; it has six equal sepals in two series, which are subequal, 

 elliptic, and membranaceous ; six equal petals, much shorter 

 than the sepals, the three exterior twice the breadth of the three 

 inner ones, all extremely thick and fleshy, closely compacted 

 and depressed into a subtrigonoid form, leaving a hollow in the 

 centre for the stamens, which thus appear sunk within a fleshy 

 disk, nearly as in Anomospennum : in the centre are three free 

 stamens, with almost obsolete filaments, each having a broad 

 fleshy connective bearing two oval separated anther-cells dor- 

 sally adnate upon it, and each bursting introrsely by a longitu- 

 dinal furrow. The position of the genus is yet quite uncertain. 

 Dr. Eichler places it near Tinospora, probably on account of the 

 resemblance of its leaves to those of Jateorhiza : it difi^ers from 

 it and all the genera of the Heteroclinece in having only three 

 stamens ; in the monadelphous character of the stamens it re- 

 sembles Chastnanthera, ParahcEua, and Odontocarya, belonging 

 to that tribe, which have six united filaments; while in its 

 three monadelphous stamens it approaches Sarcopetalum, De- 

 tandra, Syrrhonema, Rhaptonema, Desmonema, and Somphoxylon. 



DiSCIPHANIA, Eichl. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, biserialia, 

 subsequalia, elliptica, membranacea, glabra. Petala 6, multo 

 breviora, biseriata, 3 interiora paulo angustiora, omnia cras- 

 sissime carnosa, valde depressa, compacta, et discum trigo- 

 noideum mentientia. Stamina 3, centralia, libera; filamenta 

 brevissima, fere obsoleta, in connectivum latum carnosum 

 expansa ; anthers 2-lobse, lobis segregatis, ovatis, dorso semi- 

 immersis, singulis rima longitudinali introrsum dehiscentibus. 



Frutex Brasilia septentrionalis scandens, undique siriffoso-pilosus ; 

 folia suhovata, profunde cordata, apice inciso-trilobata, lobis 



