322 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermaceae. 



46. Pleogyne. 



This genus was proposed by me in 1851 [huj. op, 2 ser. vii.43) 

 for an Australian plant of Cunningham's collection. With a 

 habit resembling that of a Pachygonej it has oblong, coriaceous 

 leaves with about five pairs of alternate nerves, which are 

 arcuately connected together, with prominent reticulations ; they 

 have very short petioles : it has a fructiferous axillary raceme, 

 less than half the length of the leaf. In the only specimen I 

 have seen, the floral envelopes had fallen away ; but Cunningham 

 has noted upon it that the flower consists of three sepals, six 

 stamens, and six ovaries : the ovaries which I have seen are 

 seated in a single series upon a raised hairy receptacle; they 

 are gibbously oval, very pilose, terminated by as many curving, 

 somewhat erect, subulate styles, all connivent in the centre. 

 The drupes are very small, pubescent, gibbously oval, subfleshy; 

 each has a somewhat coriaceous putamen, with a small internal 

 rounded condyle, and contains an exalbuminous seed, with large, 

 fleshy, Innately curved, accumbent cotyledons, and a small su- 

 perior radicle inclining towards the remnant of the style, which 

 is not far from the point of attachment of the fruit : this struc- 

 ture is quite that of Pachygone. 



Mr. Bentham, in 1862, established his genus Microclisia 

 (Nov. Gen. i. 435) upon an Australian plant very similar in its 

 aspect to Cunningham's species; but he afterwards cancelled 

 this (Flor. Austr. i. 59), making his plant not only congeneric, 

 but specifically identical with Cunningham's plant. They are 

 certainly very much alike, especially in the venation of the 

 leaves; but in one these are more acuminated. There is, how- 

 ever, this difi'erence between the plants, — that in the former the 

 flowers have eighteen sepals and six petals ; in the latter, Cun- 

 ningham only mentions the existence of three sepals, without 

 any allusion to the presence of petals : the three interior sepals 

 in Microclisia are long, acute, and almost lanceolate ; in Pleogyne 

 they are short and triangular. In Microclisia there are only 

 three stamens, corresponding with the number of the ovaries ; 

 in Pleogyne there are six stamens, according with the number of 

 the ovaries. 



It may be urged that Cunningham overlooked fifteen of the 

 smaller sepals, and did not notice the presence of the petals, on 

 account of their minute size ; but we have no right to assume 

 this as a fact, and, upon that assumption, affirm the identity of 

 the two genera. We have this consideration in favour of Cun- 

 ningham's statement : if the calyx had consisted of the number 

 of sepals found in Microclisia, we ought to see on the summit of 



