Mr. J. Miers on the Menisperuiaceae. 27 



13. Nejihroica Ferrandiana, nob. ; — Ferrandia oleifolia, Gaud, 

 Freyc. Voy. 477, tab. 101 ; — Cocculus Ferrandianus, Presl^ 

 Rep. Bot. i. 154; Walp. Rep. i. 94; — Cissampelos? acumi- 

 nata, DC. Syst. i. 538, Prodr. i. 103. — In ins. Sandwich. : 

 V. s. in herb. De Cand., Owbyhee (Gaudichaud) ; in hb. Mus. 

 Brit., Owbyhee (Cook, Third Voy.). 



36. HOLOPEIRA. 



In describing Cocculus and Nephroica, with which Holopeira 

 has been amalgamated by the authors of the ' Flora Indica' and 

 the ' Genera Plantarum,^ I have stated many of the reasons for 

 maintaining their separate integrity. Holopeira is distinguished 

 from those genera by its broader oblong petals, which are cu- 

 neate at base, always obtusely and in a minor degree cleft, or only 

 emarginate at the apex (not entire as in Cocculus, and not ex- 

 tremely acute and deeply incised as in Nephroica), and by its 

 lateral lobes springing from the middle on each side (not basal, 

 as in those genera) : the stigma is more or less elongated, sud- 

 denly reflected over the apex of the ovary, channelled above, with 

 crenately inflected margins, and truncated at the extremity : in 

 the one genus the sepals and petals are quite glabrous, in the 

 other they are frequently clothed with very long sericeous hairs. 

 But the chief distinction, one of manifest structural difi'ereijce, 

 lies in the very peculiar form of its putamen, which is pale, often 

 thinly crustaceous, orbicular, somewhat flattened on the oppo- 

 site faces, and there marked with numerous radiating, finely 

 tuberculated strise ; it has a broad and somewhat flattened peri- 

 phery, with a remarkably acute projecting keel running round it 

 between two grooves ; the condyle is altogether central and quite 

 circular, consisting of two broad, open and deep chambers, with a 

 finely toothed margin, and separated by a septum formed of two 

 thin united laminae having a central hole, sometimes very large ; 

 the putamen is thus cleanly pierced through its centre by three 

 distinct parallel holes (whence the generic name). This central 

 transperforation is somewhat analogous to the structure of Ste- 

 phania ; but there the condyle is thin and disciform, marked by 

 a single foramen. The structure in Holopeira is so very pecu- 

 liar, and so entirely difi'erent from that of Cocculus and Nephroica, 

 that I cannot conceive why its generic vahdity should be dis- 

 puted by botanists who, in many other extensive families, have 

 recognized far more trivial discrepancies. 



Holopeira, nob. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, ternatim et al- 

 ternatim disposita, spathulato-oblonga, ssepius villosissima, 

 exteriora minora, rarius bracteis 1-3 consimilibus donata. 



, Petala 6, biscriata, oblonga, imo cuneata, lateribus medio 



