8 IV. MENISPEKMACEiE. [Anamirta. 



gamous. Sepals commonly 6, free, the outer 3 often minute. Petals 

 commonly 6, or wanting. Male flowers : stamens commonly 6, opposite 

 to petals, rarely fewer or more ; anthers 2-4-celled, frequently extrorse or 

 dehiscing laterally. Female flowers : carpels free, distinct, 3, rarely 1 

 or more than 3 ; ovules solitary. Ripe carpels generally drupaceous, the 

 seed enclosed in the woody or coriaceous endocarp, usually curved or re- 

 niform, with or without albumen, the radicle pointing towards the scar 

 of the style, which is often near the base of the fruit. Gen. PI. i. 30 ; 

 Royle 111. 61 j Wight 111. i. 19. 



Sepals 6 ; anthers sessile on a stout central column ; drupes subglob- 

 oseon a stout 3-fid gynophore; style near the base ; endocarp 



hard, woody 1. Anamirta. 



Sepals 6 ; stamens free ; ovaries 3-12. 



Drupes with scar of style near the apex, anthers bilocular, 



dehiscing longitudinally 2. Tinospora. 



Drupes with scar of style near the base. 



Dry fruit circular, compressed, strongly tubercled, anthers 



4-lobed, dehiscing transversely 3. Cocculus. 



Dry fruit obovate-oblong, not tubercled, anthers 2-lobed, 



dehiscing longitudinally 4. Tiliacora. 



Male flower : sepals 4, petals connate into a 4-lobed cup; stamens 

 monadelphous ; female flowers in the axils of large leafy bracts; 

 drupes with scar of style near the base ; dry fruit circular, 

 strongly tubercled 5. Cissampelos. 



1. ANAMIRTA, Colebrooke. 



1. A. Cocculus, W. & A. Prodr. 446. Syn. Menisjpermum Cocculus, 

 Linn. ; Roxb. PI. Ind. iii. 807. Yern. Kakmari. 



A glabrous climbing shrub, bark corky. Leaves coriaceous, cordate or- 

 ovate, blade 4-8 in. long, petiole 2-6 in. Flowers greenish, in long pen- 

 dulous panicles. Sepals 6, with two small adpressed bracts ; petals none. 

 Anthers numerous, 2 - celled, on the top of a thick central column. 

 Carpels 3 on a stout trifid gynophore \ in. long. Drupes subglobose, J in. 

 diam., black, glabrous. Seed globose, enclosing the intruded endocarp. 



South India, Eastern Bengal, Oudh forests (R. Th., but I have not seen 

 specimens). The Cocculus berries are bitter, used in India to intoxicate and 

 poison fish, and in England to adulterate beer. 



2. TINOSPORA, Miers. 



1. T. cordifolia, Miers ; Hook. PI. Ind. i. 97. Syn. Cocculus cordi- 

 folius, DC. ; W. & A. Prodr. 12 ; Wight Ic. t. 485, 486. Menisper- 

 mum cordifolium, Willd. ; Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 811. Vern. Batindu, Pb. ; 

 Guhvail, Bombay. 



A glabrous, climbing, succulent shrub, bark corky. Leaves cordate, 

 acute or acuminate, blade 2-4 in. diam., petiole 1J-3 in. Flowers 

 small yellow, in long slender racemes, male flowers fascicled, female 

 flowers usually solitary. Sepals 6. Petals 6, half the length of sepals, 

 wedge-shaped. Filaments 6, thick, clavate, the 2 anther-cells obliquely 

 adnate to the top. Ovaries 3. Drupes 1-3, red, succulent, plane-convex, 



