490 Mr. J. Miers on the Meuispermaceae. 



menta tenuia^ ventre linea longitudinali incrassata signata, 

 et hinc in striam insinuata : embryo (e fructu immaturo ad- 

 huc vix distinguendus) in albumine earnoso inclusus. 

 Frutices scandentes, in Asia tropica, prasertim in insulis,vigentes; 

 folia magna, ovata, acuminata, coriacea, S-nervia, sapius glabra, 

 longe petiolata : racemi plurimi vel solitarii, supra-axillares, 

 simplices ; floras breviter pedicellati. 



1 . Tinomisdum petiolare, nob. ; — Penang. 

 3. — — Javanicum, nob. ; — Java. 



These are fully described in the * Contributions to Botany/ 

 vol. iii. 



8. BURASAIA. 



This genus, proposed by Du Petit Thouars in 1806 for some 

 Madagascar plants, was included with much hesitation in the 

 LardizabalacecB by Prof. Decaisne, in his excellent monograph of 

 that family, his doubts being founded on the minute size of its 

 flowers, the absence of sterile ovaria in the male plant, its introrse 

 anthers, its fertile ovaries having only a single ovule, the coty- 

 ledons of its embryo being large, foliaceous, and divaricately 

 placed in distinct cells of the albumen, characters quite opposed 

 to Lardizabalacece ; but the consideration of its distinctly 3- 

 foliolate leaves, and of the seed being invested by a papillose vis- 

 cous envelope, preponderated in favour of its position in the 

 former family. I believe I was the first to determine its true 

 affinity, in my 'Notes on Menispermacea,' in 1851, when it was 

 placed in my tribe Heterocliniece. Lately, however, the authors 

 of the new * Genera Plantarum ' have removed it from that tribe 

 without stating their reasons, and with seeming contradiction 

 have placed it in a doubtful position at the tail of the Pachy- 

 ^one«, acknowledging at the same time the conformity of its em- 

 bryo with that of the Heterocliniea ! After the publication of my 

 " remarks " above stated, I had an opportunity of examining the 

 typical specimen in the Paris herbarium ; and though it has only 

 male flowers, the parts accord so well with those of the Hetero- 

 cliniece, that, having regard also to the details of Du Petit Thouars 

 and Decaisne respecting the structure of the fruit and seed, I 

 have no hesitation whatever in retaining the genus in the position 

 I had long ago assigned to it. The careful examination of the 

 specimen of another species in the British Museum has since 

 confirmed this decision. The genus is certainly singular in 

 having 3-foliolate leaves; but it must be remembered that through- 

 out the family they are most frequently 3-nerved, and that the 

 leaves of Jateorhiza and Calycocarpum ofifer a near approach to 

 those of Burasaia in being deeply 3-5-lobed : we know that 

 similar grades of division are common in many families. 



