Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermace. 13 
that in Pycnarrhena, Clambus, and Penianthus. In its inflores- 
cence, with several 1-flowered pedicels fasciculated in each axil, 
it resembles Pycnarrhena, as well as in its globular anthers 
opening extrorsely by a gaping fissure—a feature repeated in 
Anelasma, Jateorhiza, and Elissarrhena. The chief peculiarity 
-of Antitazis is in the dimerous arrangement of its floral parts ; 
but the Menispermacee are far from constant in their usual 
ternary disposition, as we find also binary sepals and petals in 
Antizoma, Clypea, Peraphora, and others of the Cissampelide, 
while in several genera of the family the floral parts are found 
in numbers varying between two and seven, or even beyond 
this. When I published the synopsis of the genera (huj. op. xiii. 
124), a separate section was made to include all those of which 
(for want of sufficient evidence) the tribe to which they belong 
could not be determined; to this section Antizoma was then 
referred. Since that time I have seen its fruit, which closely 
resembles that of Pycnarrhena and other genera of the Pachy- 
gonee ; consequently Antitaxzis must now find its place in 
that tribe: its wood is unmistakeably of Menispermaceous 
structure. The authors of the ‘Nova Genera’ (i. p. 33), in one 
sentence, expel this genus and Odontocarya from this family, 
because ‘they appeared to them to offer no character distinct 
from the Huphorbiacee, and because they differ from Meni- 
spermacee in their inflorescence and in their habit. The strong 
evidence afforded here and elsewhere completely disproves all 
these inferences. 
Antitaxis, nob.—Flores dioici. Mase. Sepala 8, per paria 
decussatim opposita, 2 exteriora bracteiformia, extus longe 
pilosa, 2 sequentia late obovata, apice truncata, ciliato-fim- 
briata, 4 interiora paulo majora, equalia, suborbicularia, 
concava, carnosula, glabra, cestivatione imbricata. Petala 2, 
tenuiora, obovata, apice truncata, sepalis 2 interioribus alterna 
et paulo breviora. Stamina 4, cruciatim disposita, petalis 
opposita et paululo breviora; filamenta carnosula, sursum 
gradatim incrassata; anthere filamenti vertice semiimmerse, 
subglobose, carnose, l-lobz, subextrorse, rima subobliqua 
transversim et bivalvatim hiantes. Ovarii rudimentum nul- 
lum.—Fam. Flores ignoti. Drupe 3, aut abortu pauciores, 
subglobose, exsicce, velutine, styli vestigio facie ventrali 
notatz ; putamen subreniformi-ovatum, tenuiter chartaceum, 
2 fragile, 1-loculare ; condylus parvus, internus, intra loculum 
sinum versus paulo intrusus aut fere obsoletus. Semen reni- 
formi-globosum, exalbuminosum ; inteyumentum membrana- 
ceum, sinum versus chalaza majuscula notatum : embryo reni- 
formi-globosus, loculum implens, cotyledonibus magnis, car- 
