10 IV. MENISPEItMACEiE. [Cocculus. 



Common in the plains and lower hills of most parts of India. Tropical Africa. 

 Fl. Feb., March. The juice of the ripe berries makes a durable bluish-purple 

 ink. The leaves rubbed in water thicken into a green jelly. Roots and leaves 

 used in native medicine. 



4. TILIACORA, Colebrooke. 



1. T. racemosa, Colebrooke ; Hook. Fl. Ind. i. 99. Syn. Cocculus 

 acuminatus, W. & A. Prodr. 12. Menispermum polycarpon, Roxb. Fl. 

 Ind. iii. 816. Vern. Tiliakoru, Beng. ; Karwant, karrauth, rangoe, Oudh. 



A large climber, with, entire, coriaceous, glabrous, ovate, acuminate 

 leaves, blade 3-6 in., petiole 1 in. long. Fl. yellow, dioecious or polygam- 

 ous, in axillary raceme-like panicles 6-12 in. long, with branches 1 in. 

 long, bearing either one female, or 3-7 male flowers. Sepals 6, in two 

 series, the outer much smaller. Petals 6, minute. Stamens 6, ovaries 

 3-12, styles short. Drupes 3-12, compressed, obovoid, J in. long, stalked, 

 style-scar near the base, endocarp thin, crustaceous. Seed hooked, albumen 

 oily, ruminate. Cotyledons linear, fleshy. 



Oudh forests, Bengal, Orissa, Concan, Ceylon. Fl. most part of the year. 

 Fruit ripe March. Evergreen, enveloping the tallest forest-trees in its dense 

 dark-green foliage. The long flexible branches are used for thatching and 

 basket-work. 



5. CISSAMPELOS, Linn. 



Mostly climbers with peltate leaves. Male flowers cyrnose, tetra- 

 merous, petals connate into a 4-lobed cup. Stamens monadelphous, 

 anthers united into a peltate disc, dehiscing round the margin. Female 

 flowers racemose, crowded in the axils of large leafy bracts; perigonium of 

 1 or 2 lateral scales. Carpel one with a short trifid or tridentate style. 

 Drupe circular, style-scar near the base ; endocarp horseshoe-shaped, com- 

 pressed, tubercled on the back. Seed curved. 



1. C. Pareira, Linn. ; Hook. Fl. Ind. i. 103. Syn. C. convolvulacea, 

 Willd. ; W. & A. Prodr. 14; Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 842. Yern. Katori, par- 

 otic, pataki, tikri, Pb. ; Dakh-nirbisi, N.W.P. ; Hcwjeivri, Oudh. 



A climbing undershrub, with a short stem, throwing out long herbaceous 

 twining branches, generally covered with grey tomentum. Leaves pel- 

 tate, broad-ovate or reniform. Male flowers in axillary usually branched, 

 and corymbose racemes, with few small bracts. Female flowers on elon- 

 gate, generally simple racemes, with numerous, broad, alternate, foliaceous 

 bracts, and several 1 -flowered pedicels in their axils. 



Common in most parts of India, in the north-west, along the foot of the 

 Himalaya, as far west as the Jhelum river, but not in the arid parts of the 

 Panjab and Sindh. Fl. March-Oct. Leaves and root used medicinally. A plant 

 of very wide distribution. Also in tropical America, where it yields the 

 Radix Pareirce of druggists, and in tropical Africa. 



The structure of the wood of Menispermacese is remarkable, and differs in 

 several respects from the wood of other dicotyledons. The vascular bundles 

 of a young branch (which in most dicotyledons unite and form concentric 





