24 Mr. J. Miers on the Menisperniacese. 



Cat. 4975 ;— Cocculus Leseba, Hook. ^ Th. {inparte) Fl. Ind. 

 i. 192. — In India orientali : v. s. in herb. Sac. Linn. (Wall. 

 Cat. 4975) ; in herb. Hook., Coimbatore (Gardner), prope 

 Coimbatore (Wight, 43). 

 6. Cocculus recisus, nob. — In India orientali : v. s. in herb. Mus. 

 Brit., in herb. Hook. <^ et ? , Punjab (Falconer, 85), ibidem 

 (Dr. Thomson) ; ? , Moultan (Edgworth, 1146) ; (^, Af- 

 ghanistan (Griffiths, 1295). 



35. Nephroica. 



This genus, established by Loureiro, was disregarded by bo- 

 tanists for nearly sixty years, until I first pointed out its pecu- 

 liar structure and the differences which separate it from Cocculus, 

 with which genus it had been associated. De Candolle placed its 

 typical species in a particular section, on account of its monoe- 

 cious flowers, Loureiro having erroneously stated that male and 

 female flowers are found on the same plant ; but his original 

 specimen in the British Museum does not present this character, 

 nor have I found it in any other of its species. I have elsewhere 

 stated that the authors of the 'Flora Indica^ have declined to 

 admit this genus, fusing Nephroica, Holopeira, and Diploclisia 

 into Cocculus, because they attach no importance to the shape 

 of the petals, asserting that it is not even constant in each spe- 

 cies; and thuSj after their singular method, they conglomerated 

 most of the species of Nephroica enumerated below into a single 

 species of Cocculus. The principal reason they assign is not 

 supported circumstantially ; for I have carefully examined scores, 

 nay, hundreds of flowers in the genus, and have found their 

 shape and proportion constant in each species. In every case 

 the petals are far more elongated than in Cocculus, and are 

 divided from their apex to near their middle into two extremely 

 attenuated caudate points, usually inflected above, while at their 

 base they have two short auricular lobes, which are involuted 

 round the base of the stamens. The filaments are gradually 

 thickened at the apex into a clavate form, the anthers being 

 globular, parallel, dorsally attached to the filament, with a very 

 narrow connective between them ; they are therefore introrse, 

 and each lobe bursts by a horizontal suture. The female flower 

 has sepals and petals like those of the male, and six effete sta- 

 mens ; they have three or six free ovaries each, with a stigma dif- 

 ferent from that of Cocculus. There is not much dissimilitude 

 in the structure of the putamen and seed in these two genera. 



In adopting Loureiro's generic name I have corrected a typo- 

 graphical error, by reforming it into Nephroica^ a name evidently 

 derived from v€^po<i [ren), eiKO) [similis suv(i), which expresses the 

 reniform shape of its putamen : we thus avoid the inconvenience 



