CoCCnluS.] IV. MENISPERMACE,*: (oLIVER). 45 



small, axillary, the males fascicled, sessile or shortly pedicellate, the females 

 solitary or in pairs on pedicels of 2-4 lines. — C. ellipiicus, DC. Syst. Veg. i. 

 526. 



Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Perrottet, Heudelot I 

 North Central. Kouka, J5;. Vogel ! 

 Nile Iiand. Senuar, Kotschij ! 



A variable plant with a very wide range, extending from the arid regions of India and 

 Afghanistan, through Arabia and Egypt, to the Cape Verd Islands. 



For synonymy, see ' Flora ludica,' i. 192, of Drd. Hooker and Thomson. 



2. C. villosus, DC. Syst. Veg. i. 525. Leaves ovate-oblong or ellip- 

 tical or subdeltoid or even cordate, obtuse or retuse and rainutelv inucronate, 

 rarely acute, younger leaves more or less pilose or softly pubescent, on the 

 ramuli |-2 in. long, |-1| in. broad. Petiole 1-3 lines. Male flowers fas- 

 cicled, sessile or shortly pauicled. Females usually fascicled or solitarv, sub- 

 sessile, shortly pedicellate or rarely racemose. — Holopeira torrida, Miers in 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. Ser. 3. xix. 29. 



Mozamb. Distr. Shire river, above the cataracts, Dt. Kirk ! 



A very common and widely-spread species in India. It occurs also in extratropical 

 "Western Africa {Curror) 



6. CISSAMPELOS, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 37. 



Male fl. : Sepals 4 (or 5). Petals 4 or fewer, much shorter than the 

 sepals, united into an entire or divided cup-shaped corolla ; anthers 2-5, 

 united into a peltate (4-10-lobulate) disk, polliniferous and dehiscing around 

 the margin. Female fl.: Sepal (or bracteolej 1, subtending a single entire 

 or 2-lobed petal (or sepal). Carpel solitary, with a 3-fid or 3-dentate or 

 sometimes irregularly-cut style. Drupe compressed or subglobose, with the 

 scar of the style near to the hilum. Putamen compressed, the margin tu- 

 bercled, the sides depressed with a transverse process extending across the 

 inside of the base of the cavity. Seed horseshoe-shaped, curved aroimd the 

 intruded process of the putd,men ; embryo linear, with appressed cotyledons, 

 in a small quantity of albumen. — Climbers. Leaves usually cordate or reni- 

 form. Male flowers cymose ; female racemose' often clustered in the axils 

 of leafy bracts. 



A genus principally confined to the tropics, widely spreading in both hemispheres. 



Pubescent tomentose or rarely glabrate. Leaves with the sinus deepest at 



the insertion of the petiole (or peltate). Male flowers pilose . . . . \. C. Pareira. 



Glabrous or nearly so. Leaves with the lamina usually slightly produced 

 to the petiole in the middle of the sinus. Male rtowers glabrous or sub- 

 glabrous 2. (7. toruhsa. 



Leaves peltate, glabrous, rather shining and reticulate above, paler and 



puberulous beneath. Pedicels pilose 3. C insoliia. 



1. C. Pareira, Linn.; DC. Prod. i. 100. Leaves reniform-cordate, 

 cordate or rotundate-deltoid, entire or rotundate and broadly and obscurely 

 lobed, pubescent, shortly pilose or tomentose or sometimes nearly glabrous, 

 at least above, usually obtuse and mucroiiate or emarginate, cordate at the 

 base, with the petiole inserted at the base of the sinus, or more or less dis- 

 tinctly peltate and truncate. Male flowers minute, in many-flowered axillary 



