12 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



Tribe 5. HvpsERPEiE. The style here also is seen near the 

 base of the fruit, in consequence of its excentric growth. The 

 putamen is formed as in the preceding tribe, and the embryo, 

 imbedded in simple albumen, is of the same slender proportions; 

 but the cotyledons are accumbent (not incumbent). The sepals 

 in aestivation are either imbricated or valvate, and the flowers 

 are sometimes remarkable for being very unsymmetrical in the 

 relative number of their parts. 



Tribe 6. Platygone^. The style here also is near the base of 

 the fruit. The putamen either resembles that of the Tiliacorea 

 in shape, divided by a septiform condyle, having a hippocrepi- 

 form cell, or the condyle is subglobular and often 2-camerate, 

 variously perforated, to the edge of which the integuments are 

 attached, as in the two last tribes, the cell being in this case 

 cyclical. The seed is either 2-crural or cyclical ; the embryo is 

 imbedded in the middle of the albumen, which fills, the cell, 

 partakes of its form, has large incumbent cotyledons, as in the 

 LejAogonece (not accumbent) ; these are flattened and foliaceous, 

 twice or three times the breadth of the more slender terete 

 radicle, and always from two to six times its length ; the radicle 

 in the upper horn points to the style. This is a very natural 

 and well-marked division, and ought on no account to be con- 

 founded with the two former. 



Tribe 7. Pachygone^. The style, as in the three former 

 groups, is near the base of the fruit, or it is more removed from 

 it. The putamen is generally coriaceous, with a septiform con- 

 dyle, which is sometimes almost obsolete. Unlike all the other 

 tribes, the embryo is here quite exalbuminous, so that it entirely 

 fills the cavity of the hippocrepiform or renifoi-m cell, the radicle 

 being extremely short and small, pointing to the style, the coty- 

 ledons being very large, extremely fleshy, cyclically curved and 

 accumbent. These characters render it one of the most natural 

 divisions of the family. 



The authors of the 'Flora Indica,' in their arrangement of 

 Asian Menispermacea (in 1855), were the first to adopt the 

 principle of the above distribution ; but they made several ob- 

 jectionable alterations in it, losing sight of some of the more 

 prominent and constant characters, and adopting others of less 

 value. They divided the family in a somewhat difi'erent manner, 

 some of their groups being extremely heterogeneous. Their 

 first tribe {Coscinieae) ofi"ers no character different from my 

 Heterocliniece ; the latter was adopted by them as their second 

 tribe, but they changed its name to Tinosporea without any 

 advantage; the former designation certainly better expresses 

 the very peculiar and most salient character of the group — that 

 of their divaricated cotyledons imbedded in distinct cells of the 



