488 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermaceae. 



All the plants I have referred to this genus coincide with 

 Loureiro's specimen in a very peculiar feature : the two principal 

 nerves which spring from the base are connate with the midrib, 

 sometimes for half an inch in length, so that, technically speak- 

 ing, they are triplinerved : the leaves are rather large, oblong, 

 generally very coriaceous, the nervures are scarcely prominent 

 on either side, the reticulated veins being wholly immersed, and 

 hardly distinguishable, the petiole is rigid, very tumid at its 

 apex, and still more swollen and tortuous at its base. The in- 

 florescence is axillary, and in the male forms a very lax, wide- 

 spreading panicle, as long as, or three times the length of the 

 petiole ; but in the female the panicle is compounded only to 

 the second degree, is more than twelve times the length of the 

 petiole, with elongated patent branches, and rather long, distant, 

 1 -flowered pedicels. 



FiBRAUREA, Lour. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 9, interdum 

 12, in ordine ternario imbricatim disposita, exteriora bractei- 

 formia, 6 ; interiora multo majora, ovata vel oblonga, medio 

 crassiuscula, margine membranacea et denticulato-erosa. Pe- 

 tala nulla (nisi 6 carnosula filamenta amplectentia et iis arete 

 accreta). Stamina 6, inter se libera, centralia, fasciculata; 

 filamenta crassa, subcompressa, subincurvata, infra antheram 

 linea prominente transversali cincta, carinaque antica notata 

 (an petala accreta ?) : antherce oblongse, coriacese, 2-lob8e, lobis 

 paulo divaricatis, connectivo subimmersis, rima marginali 

 utrinque dehiscentibus. Ovaria rudimentaria nulla, Foem. 

 Petala aut stamina sterilia 6, lineari-oblonga, obtusa, car- 

 nosula, ad basin gynsecii columnaris affixa, eo paulo longiora, 

 sepalis 2-3-plo minora, erecta. Ovaria 3, summo gynaecii 

 insita, gibboso-ovata, erecta : stylus nullus ; stigma subexcen- 

 tricum, e punctis globosis minutis sessile. Drwpm 3, oblongo- 

 ovatse, subcompressse, carnosse, Iseves : putamen oblongum, 

 compressura, dorso convexiusculum, ventre planius, et hinc 

 sulco profundo longitudinali notatum, 1-loculare, 1-spermum; 

 condylus e sulci duplicatura in carinam linearem fere ad 

 centrum loculi protensam internus, et longitudinalis : semen 

 loculo conforme : integumenta tenuia, linea longitudinali 

 ventrali incrassata et hinc ad condylum adhserentia : embryo 

 (e fructu immaturo adhue vix plane visus) cotyledonibus 

 foliaceis divaricatis, in albumine carnoso inclusus. 



Frutices scandentes, in Asia intertropica, prasertim in insulis 

 vigentes; folia ovata aut oblonga, acuminata, coriacea, gla- 

 berrima, triplinervia, longe petiolata; panicula axillaris, laxe 

 et latissime expansa, $ lungissima ; drupse flavce. 



1. Fibraurea tinctoria.Jjouv.; — China. * 



