Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 93 



men, has large, fleshy, accumbent cotyledons, which nearly fill 

 the entire space of the cell of the putamen. This genus is con- 

 fined entirely to the South-American continent, the Antilles, and 

 Mexico. 



Dr. Eichler, in his monograph of the Brazilian MenispermacecSf 

 refers all the species of Hyperbana which he describes to the 

 genus Pachygonej the plants of which are exclusively of Asiatic 

 origin. No botanist will second this conclusion who attentively 

 compares the structure of the two genera. In P achy gone the 

 petals are more linear, inflexed at the summit, with basal auri- 

 cular lobes which incurvingly embrace and conceal the base of 

 the filaments and the 4-lobed introrse anthers, without inter- 

 vening connective, burst bivalvately by a horizontal fissure, all 

 as in Cocculus, and quite difi'erent from Hyperhcena : the latter 

 genus has also another form of putamen, with a very difi'erent 

 kind of condyle. Besides the difference in the floral and seminal 

 characters, the general aspect of the plants, and more especially 

 the peculiar mode of venation of the leaves, render it impossible 

 for any attentive observer to confound the one genus with the 

 other. 



Mr. Bentham acknowledged the validity of Hyperhcena (Journ. 

 Proc. Linn. Soc. v. Suppl. 50), but made great perplexity among 

 the species by fusing together my H. Mexicana, Hostmanni, 

 Moricandi, valida, and graciliflora into his H. reticulata, a species 

 founded on a plant quite foreign to the genus : this is the Coc- 

 culus reticulatus, Mart., the Anomospermum reticulatum, Eichl. 

 Fl. Bras. fasc. xxxix. 171, tab. 37. f. 3. 



I have here indicated fifteen very distinct species, of which 

 the first twelve, as in the typical plant, have an elongated slen- 

 der inflorescence, while the last three present in each axil a 

 fascicle of several extremely short panicles, with numerous 

 flowers crowded into an almost sessile oblong head. 



HYPERBiENA, nob. — Floves dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, obovata vel 

 ovalia, biseriata, 3 interiora majora, ssepe glandulis resinosis 

 medio notata. Petala G, dimidio minora, subbiseriata, ovata, 

 integra, subplana vel rarius lateribus subintroflexa. Stamina 

 6, biserialia, petalis opposita et rarius longiora; filamenta 

 apice incrassata et subdilatata; antherce subdidymse vel 2-lobse, 

 lobis ovatis aut subglobosis, imo divergentibus, marginibus 

 filamenti adnatis, plus minusve segregatis, utrinque rima 

 laterali longitudinaliter dehiscentibus. — Fcem. Sepala et petala 

 eadem ac masc. Stamina sterilia 6, petalis dimidio breviora et 

 opposita, apice 2-glandulosa. Ovaria 3, gibbosa, gynsecio brevi 

 hirsuto collocata, 1-locularia, ovulo unico latere ventrali ap- 

 penso munita. Stylus excentricus, ex angulo interno ortus, 



