Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 327 



the ovary. The drupe is somewhat puberulous, very fleshy, 

 reniformly globose, with the remnant of the style below the 

 middle of the side facing the axis ; the putamen consists of a 

 thin coriaceous shell, reniformly oval, subcompressed, with a 

 rather deep sinus on the ventral side, where it is somewhat 

 thickened, forming an obsolete condyle, which intrudes a short 

 way within the cell, where it is convex, and to which the integu- 

 ment of the seed is attached : the embryo, which fills the cavity 

 of the cell, is exalbuminous, lunate in shape, the cotyledons 

 being accumbent, very thick and fleshy, conjoined at their upper 

 extremity by a minute conical radicle, which points to the ves- 

 tige of the style. 



From the foregoing evidence it is clear that the genus Sciado- 

 tenia, of which the female flower only is known, belongs to the 

 PachijgonecEy and ofi'ers some analogy with Pleogyne in having 

 an unusual number of pubescent ovaries arranged in a single 

 whorl upon a raised gynsecium. Whether Elissarrhena has any 

 relationship with it cannot be known till its female flower or 

 fruit be discovered ; but it is worthy of note that both are from 

 Guiana, and that their branches are fistulous and filled with 

 pith. 



SciADOTENiA, nob. — Floves dioici. Masc. ignoti. — Fcem. Se- 

 pala 9, in ordine ternario disposita, gradatim minora, exteriora 

 bracteiformia, interiora intermediis 2-plo majora. Petala 

 nulla. Ovaria 8 ad 16, gibba, uniserialiter supra gynsecium 

 paulo elevatum insita, 1-locularia, 1-ovulata. Stylus excen- 

 tricus, angulo interiore ortus, supra ovarium inflexus, subu- 

 latus, superne sulcatus. Drupce 9 vel abortu pauciores, gib- 

 boso-ovatse, paulo compressse, carnosse, carpopodio carnoso 

 breviter stipitatae et singulatim ad carpophorum proprium arti- 

 culatse : carpophora tot quot drupse, sub-4-gona, 8-sulcata, 

 puberula,elongata,e toro orta, suberecte, umbellam mentientia, 

 intus tubo membranaceo imo coalita, persistentia ; putamen 

 reniformi-ovatum, paulo compressum, tenuiter coriaceum, 

 1-loculare; condylus subobsoletus, lateralis, intra loculum 

 intrusus, convexus, paululo incrassatus et placentaris. Se- 

 men loculo conforme, lunatum; integumentum membrana- 

 ceum, chalaza laterali ad condylum affixum : embryo exalbu- 

 minosus, cotyledonibus magnis, crassis, incurvis, accumbenti- 

 bus, radicula minima supera ad stylum spectante multoties 

 longioribus. 



Frutices Guianenses, scandentes ; folia elliptica, apice attenuata, 

 ^-nervia, nervis rectis suhparallelis, intra marginem arcuatim 

 nexiSf transversim venosa et reticulata, utrinque glabra et ni- 

 tentia, petiolo subbrevi : pedunculus $ supra-axillaris, solitarius 



