9.2 Mr. J. Miers on the Meuispermacese. 



ovalia, apice suhacuta, e basi 7-nervia, transversim venosa et 

 reticulata, glaberrima, supra nitida, suhtus pallide glauca : 

 racemi ^ in nodis annotinis aphyllis plurimi, fasciculati, vel in 

 axillis solitariij petiolo breviores, spicatiflori, et bracteolati ; 

 flores alternatim pedicellati : racemi $ simillimi. 



The details , of the following species will appear in the third 

 volume of my ' Contributions to Botany •/ — 



Sarcopetalum Harveyanum, F. MuelL Fl. Vict. 27, tab. suppl. 3 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austral, i. 57. — In Australia : v. s. in herb. 

 Hook. ? , Swany River (Mueller), Victoria (Mueller), 

 Moreton Bay (Oldfield), lllawarra (Cunningham, 178). 



41. Hyperb^na. 



This genus was proposed by me in 1851 for a plant which I 

 found in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro^ that had only 

 male flowers. As its fruit was then unknown, the genus was 

 placed among those of dubious position. At that time also, for 

 want of better knowledge, the fruit of Cocculus Domingensis, DC. 

 was supposed to belong to Anelasma (the fruit of which was also 

 unknown) — a supposition suggested by the circumstance, then 

 mentioned, of the remarkable similarity in the external aspects 

 of the species of Hyperb<2na and Anelasma. Soon afterwards I 

 ascertained that Cocculus Domingensis, of which ^ flowers only 

 were then known, belonged to Hyperbcena ; and having seen its 

 fruit, I was thus enabled to place it with confidence in the ex- 

 albuminous tribe of the Pachygonea. The authors of the ' Ge- 

 nera Plantarum " (i. 38) state that HyperbcBua scarcely difi'ers 

 from Cocculus J except in its seed ; but those botanists appear to 

 have entertained a general but not very defined idea of the real 

 structure of Cocculus. In Hyperbcena the form of the petals is 

 different : they are always more oval, never linear, nor with 

 deeply inflected basal lobes; the anthers are otherwise con- 

 structed and diff'erently affixed; added to which, the mode of 

 inflorescence in both sexes is so distinct, and the aspect of the 

 leaves so remarkable, that it is always easy to discriminate one 

 genus from the other by a mere glance at the specimens. The 

 leaves are usually oblong, with an acuminate apex, coria- 

 ceous, glabrous, shining, with distant nervures all alternating 

 and arching together within the margin and immersed in the 

 parenchyma. The inflorescence is peculiar, and greatly resem- 

 bles that of Anelasma, generally consisting of a very elongated, 

 slender rachis, with numerous filiform, lax, corymbose branches 

 and very minute pedicellated flowers ; from two to four of these 

 raceme-like panicles issue from a tuft of hairs placed at a con- 

 siderable distance above each axil. The embryo, without albu- 



