326 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



parallel veins. The petiole is slender and not exceeding one-fourth 

 or one-fifth of the length of the leaf. The inflorescence is axil- 

 lary and borne upon a single very elongated peduncle, as long as, 

 or longer than, the leaf. At the period above mentioned I had 

 seen only a solitary specimen, in which all the floral envelopes 

 had fallen away, leaving no indication of their position; the 

 summit of the peduncle bore nine immature drupes, each sup- 

 ported by its own long apparent pedicel ; so that I then natu- 

 rally concluded that the inflorescence was umbellate, each pedicel 

 bearing its fruit. Shortly after the printing of my paper, I met 

 with another specimen with more mature seeds ; and in one of 

 its axils I observed, to my surprise, eight ovaria sessile on the 

 summit of the peduncle, and a single seed borne upon a length- 

 ened pedicel-like support, as in the case before mentioned : this 

 at once afforded a key to the real structure, making it evident 

 that the supposed umbel is a development proceeding from a 

 single flower. Ten years subsequently Mr. Bentham noticed 

 the same fact (Proc. Linn. Soc. v. Suppl. 51), and explained this 

 development as a separate growth of each ovary, considering 

 each support to be a "podocarp" — that is to say, an expansion 

 of the fruit or ovary. But this is not the case : its true nature 

 was shown in my explanation of the analogous growth in Tilia- 

 cora (huj. op. xiv. p. 253), where the clavate torus spreads into 

 many short forks, which vary from three to twelve, according to 

 the number of drupes perfected. In that genus these forks do 

 not exceed the length of the torus (2 lines), and they are not 

 united at base, as in the very elongated carpophora of Sciado- 

 tenia, which are nearly an inch long, in shape like a 4-angular, 

 8-grooved puberulous pedicel, and united at the base inside by 

 a membranaceous web, leaving a hollow space in the centre. 

 The number of these supports corresponds with that of the 

 ovaries perfected ; they are prolonged in the ratio of the growth 

 of the fruit, and are wholly suppressed whenever the ovary is 

 not fertilized. Each drupe has its own peculiar fleshy carpo- 

 podium, by which it is attached and articulated upon the sum- 

 mit of the long carpophorum ; but the latter is in no degree 

 articulated with the torus, being evidently a growth of its sub- 

 stance. 



Mr. Bentham describes the female flower, which he had seen, 

 as having nine sepals in three series, those of the inner whorl 

 being much larger; it had no petals; no mention is made of 

 staminodia ; and the ovaries are said to be from nine to twelve 

 (I think I have seen as many as sixteen), all in a single whorl ; 

 they are pubescent and seated upon an elevated gynsecium ; 

 the style, rising excentrically from the inner angle, is subulate, 

 channelled above, and somewhat reflected over the summit of 



