Chasmanlhera.'] iv. menispeumace.e (olivlk). 41 



Stamens 6, raonadelphous ; filaments free above or united to the anthers (or 

 3 outer free in C. ? nervosa) ; ant liers free (ohovoid or ellipsoidal in Niger 

 specimens), 2-locular, dehiscin^^ longitudinally. Female fl. : Staminodia'^G. 

 Carpels 3, each narrowed above into a short acuminate, linear, recurved style. 

 Drupes ovoid, with the slightly oblique scar of the style near the apex. 

 Putamen thin, very concave on the inner face, the intruded portion nearly 

 hemispherical. Seed raeniscoid, with ruminate albumen. Cotyledons broad, 

 laterally divaricate. — A climber with large, membranous, cordate leaves. 

 Flowers in siaiple axillary racemes. 



The genus consists of a single species, if the Niger specimens be rightly referred to the 

 same as the Abyssinian, upon which the original description of the genus was based. I 

 have not found a seed in any of the drupes which I have opened. The above description of 

 it is from the * Genera Plantarura.' 



Annual shoots and leaves pubescent. Racemes simple, solitary. Sta- 

 mens monadelphons 1. C. dependent. 



Wholly glabrous. Racemes (cj) simple or panicled, two or three 



together. Three outer stamens free 1. C. ? nervosa. 



1. C. dependens^ Hochd. in Flora, 1844, 21. Stem with softly pubes- 

 cent or shortly pilose annual branches. Leaves cordate, entire or more or 

 less distinctly 3-lobed towards the apex, lobes distant rounded, or obtuselv 

 angular or broadly and obscurely 5-7-sinuate-lobed, extremities of the lobes 

 with or without the short, soft, ex current tip of a nerve, sinus of the cor- 

 date base broad and rounded or narrow and deep; thinly membranous, very 

 shortly and softly pubescent, usually 3-6 in. broad; petiole 2-4 inches. 

 Kacemes axillary, 3-9 in. long. ]3racts filiform or subulate, pilose, 2-3 lines 

 long. Male Howers solitary or 2 or 3 in the axil of each bract; pedicels 

 shorter than or scarcely equalling the bract. Fruit-pedicels patent, at length 

 recurved, exceeding the bracts. 



Upper Guinea. Niger, Barter ! 



Nile Ijand. Abyssinia, Schimper ! (? Unyoro, Speke and Orant, an imperfect speci- 

 men.) 



Barter describes the tlowers as green, the fruit scarlet. 



2. C. ? nervosa, Miers in Ann. Nat. IIIU. Ser. 3. xiii. 487. Leaves cor- 

 date, shortly acuminate or apiculate, 5-r.erved, 2|-4 in. broad, on petioles of 

 2-3 in. Male flowers in simple or paniculate axillary racemes, nearly equal- 

 ling the petioles, usually 2 or 3 together. Stamens 6 ; 3 outer free ; 3 inner 

 connate throughout; anthers 2-celled. Female flowers and fruit unknown, 

 unless the fruiting specimen described by Mr. Miers, under the name o{ Rhiyio- 

 carya, belong to this species, which appears to me not improbable. Perhaps 

 both 0. ? nervosa and C. dependens might be merged in Tinospora, as sug- 

 gested to me by Dr. Thomson. 



Upper Guinea. Bagroo river, Mann I 



2. JATEORHIZA, Miers ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 34. 



Sepals 6, in 2 series, nearly equal or the inner slightly larger. Petals f., 

 shorter than the sepals, with involute margins. Male fl. : Stamens fi ; fila- 

 ments free or more or less connate below ; anthers free, extrorse. 4-lubed. de- 



