19 



V. — On the Menispermacege. 

 By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



[Continued from vol. xviii, p. 22.] 



34. CoccuLUS. 



Much confusifon has existed in regard to this genus. The 

 earliest mention of the name was made by Bauhin and Plukenet, 

 who used it to denote the Cocculus officinarum of commerce. 

 The plant supposed to yield this famous drug was first botani- 

 cally named Menispei'mum Cocculus by Linnaeus ; but Cocculus, 

 as a genus, was not established till 1818, when DeCandolle first 

 employed it to comprehend a very heterogeneous series of plants, 

 most of which had previously been included in Menispermum. 

 The Menispermum Cocculus , Linn., ought therefore to have been 

 the type of De Candolle's genus ; but such was the want of 

 knowledge and the uncertainty then prevailing in regard to the 

 subject, that no one really knew to what plant the true Cocculus 

 of commerce belonged. It had been referred by botanists to 

 three several species : — (1) Cocculus lacunosus, DC, which I 

 considered identical with his Cocculus suberosus ; (2) Cocculus 

 Plukenetii, DC. (now a P achy gone), a species identified by De 

 Candolle with the Menispermum Cocculus, Willd. (non Linn.) ; 

 and (3) Cocculus suberosus, DC. (now an Anamirta). It is to 

 the last that the drug in question really belongs ; it is identical 

 with the Menispermum Cocculus, Linn., but not of Willdenow. 

 When I published my notes on Menispermacea in 1851, I was 

 conscious that, according to strict rule, the Cocculus suberosus 

 ought to have been taken as the type of the genus Cocculus ; 

 but in that case Anamirta, established by Colebrook in 1819, 

 must have been suppressed, and a new genus formed from the 

 plants I had retained in Cocculus. In the midst of the confu- 

 sion that had so long prevailed, I considered it far better not to 

 disturb Anamirta, but to choose another of the oldest species 

 remaining in De Candolle's genus for the type of Cocculus as 

 now restricted : accordingly Cocculus Carolinus, DC. was selected 

 for this purpose. Having cleared away from De Candolle's he- 

 terogeneous group the numerous species possessing a structure 

 at variance with this type, Cocculus was thus for the first time 

 reduced to precise limits in its floral as well as in its carpological 

 organization. 



It was endeavoured, however, by botanists of the highest repu- 

 tation, to set aside this precision with regard to Cocculus The 

 authors of the ' Flora Indica,' led away by their too ardent de- 

 sire for abrogating genera and species, disregarded the limits I 

 had assigned to this genus, and refused to acknowledge Ne^ 

 phroica, Holopeira, and Diploclisia, on the pica that a difference 



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