320 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermaceae. 



et tortuoso, flavide pruinoso ; racemo fructifero petiolo 3-plo 

 breviore, pedicellis alternis, patentibus; drupis majoribus, 

 subglobosis, uviformibus, flavescenti-puberulis vel pruinosis. 

 — In India Orientali, v. s. in herb. Hook. Assam (Griffiths) 

 et Sandoway (Capt. Margrave). 



This species is said by different botanists to be common in 

 Sumatra, the Molucca Islands, and Sylhet, and ought therefore 

 to occur frequently in collections ; but it is strange that this is 

 the first specimen I have seen in any herbarium that corresponds 

 with the written descriptions of it, among which Colebrook's is 

 fullest in details ; but he says the leaves are remote,' which seems 

 at variance with the specimen in question. Whether this plant 

 truly represents the Cocculus crispus, DC, time must show. 

 The branchlets, 4 lines in diam., have a thin lax bark, of peculiar 

 appearance: it is longitudinally corrugated or crispated, with 

 numerous raised cup-shaped cicatrices, that leave no impression 

 upon the wood beneath — a character that distinguishes it from 

 most other species : these cicatrices are placed promiscuously all 

 round the stem of the branch, at intervals of ^-^ inch apart, 

 presenting a very different appearance from the verrucosities of 

 the bark of other species, which are caused by the swelling 

 of the lenticels, and usually appear as minute bead-like promi- 

 nences round a punctiform centre. In the specimen above 

 cited six or seven petioles are entangled together by their 

 tortuous bases, just as they have fallen off in a heap from the 

 stem ; and on a new branchlet a number of young leaves are 

 to be seen crowded together in a similar manner. The 

 leaves are 4| inches long, the depth of the basal attenua- 

 tion and corresponding sinus on each side being 3 lines ; they 

 are 4 inches broad, the petiole being of the unusual length of 

 5;^ inches and | line in diam., which is three times as long as, and 

 stouter in proportion to the size of the blade than in T. palmi- 

 nei'vis, which plant I was at first inclined to refer to T. crispa : 

 the axils of the secondary nervures, and the five principal nerves 

 at their confluence with the petiole, are extended by a web- 

 shaped membrane. The fructiferous raceme is %\ inches long, 

 the pedicels rigid, much divaricated, | inch Jong ; the drupes 

 8 lines long, 6 lines in diam. when dry ; the putamen, 6^ lines 

 long, has a scrobiculated surface covered with a white pruinose 

 down. Colebrook (/. c.) gives a tolerably correct analysis of the 

 fruit and seed. 



Var. nitidiuscula ; — foliis oblongo-ovatis, profunde et late cor- 

 datis, e medio sensim angustioribus, apice subito acuminatis, 

 utrinque glaberrimis, subtus prsesertim nitentibus, hinc nervis 

 5, ad concursum membranula conspicua connexis; petiolo 



