16 THALAMIFLOR^. 



well as in most of the West India Islands. The fruit of 

 scarcely any of the species is edible : in many, as in the MENI- 

 SPERMUM COCCULUS, (the cocculus indicus of the shops), it is 

 acrid and inebriating, and Js employed for catching fish and 

 birds, and for destroying worms and lice. 



I. ClSSAMPELOS. 



$ Sepals 4. Petals 0. Stamens monadelphous, 

 4 or 2. ? Sepal 1, lateral. Petal 1, situated before 

 the sepal. Ovary 1 : stigmata 3. Drupe oblique, 

 reniform : albumen : embryo long, terete, periphe- 

 ral : radicle superior, situated at the base of the stig- 

 mata. De Cand. 



Climbing shrubs. Name, from x/<r<ro; ivy, and a/izfXog the 

 vine. 



1. Cissampelos Pareira. Pareira-brava, or Velvet 

 leaf. 



Leaves subpeltate subcordate ovato-orbiculate pu- 

 bescent above albido-villous beneath, ? racemes usu- 

 ally longer than the leaves, berries hispidulous. 



Swartz, Obs. 380. t. 10. f. 5. De Cand. Syst. I. 533. 



HAB. Common in the mountains, on fences and in thickets. 



FL. February July. 



Twining, filiform, branched, terete, spirally striated, villous. 

 Leaves alternate, petiolate, suborbiculate, varying from ob- 

 tusely-ovate to reniform, subcordate, rounded or emarginate at 

 the apex, mncronate ; when young pubescent above, and albido- 

 villous beneath ; when old subglabrous above and pubescent 

 beneath ; nerved, reticulato-venose : petiole shorter than the 

 leaf, terete, subtomentose. $ Sepals 4, obovato-spathulate, ob- 

 tuse, concave, externally hairy. Nectary confeve, orbiculate, 

 entire. Filament 1, in the centre of the nectary, erect, very 

 short : anthers 5, united into a capitate body, excavated in the 

 centre, opening externally along the margin by 4 horizontal 

 slits. ? Racemes at the ends of the branches, or axillary, longer 

 than the leaves : bracteas leafy, gradually diminishing in size to 

 the end of the raceme, shortly petiolate, suborbiculate, arista- 

 to-mucronate, pubescent, with about 5 minute shortly pedicelled 

 flowers within each. Sepal solitary, unilateral, spathulate, 

 hirsute. Petal solitary, placed before and but half the length 

 of the sepal, truncated, hypogynous. Ovary ovate, villous: 

 stigmata 3. Berry globose, slightly compressed, of an orange- 

 red colour, hispidulous. 



