THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



" perlitora spargite museum. 



Naiades, et circim vitreos considite fontes : 

 PoUice virgineo teneros hie earpite (lores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divas, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o Nymphae Craterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata eorallia trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, l)ese pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



N. Parthenii GiannettasU Eel. 1. 



No. 73. JANUARY 1864. 



I. — On the Menispermacese. 

 By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 

 In 1851 (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. Z. vii. 33) an outline was given 

 of the results of a careful examination of the Menispermacea, 

 which I had completed three years previously : the object of 

 that sketch was to call the attention of botanists to the subject, 

 and to solicit the aid of better materials for the elucidation of 

 some of the genera, which I had not been able to examine. 

 During the long interval since elapsed, the addition to our 

 knowledge on this subject has been small; and this is one reason 

 why the idea of making a complete monograph of this little-known 

 extensive family, as at first contemplated, has been renounced. 

 But as the principal facts relating to this inquiry remain yet 

 unpublished, it may be useful to give in succession some further 

 details of my previous investigations ; and with this view I now 

 proceed to offer some prefatory remarks on the general structure 

 of the order. 



The Menispermacea are generally marked by an external 

 aspect by which, even in herbaria, they are instantly recognized. 

 With rare exceptions, they are all scandent plants, with twining 

 stems, which are often of immense length, presenting a wood of 

 considerable toughness : this has a coarse porous structure formed 

 of radiating segments connected together by walls of dense 

 ligneous tissue, thus bearing some analogy to the Lardizabalacece, 



Ann. S^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xiii. 1 



