168 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermaceze. 
which I proposed as the type of a new genus, and named Elis- 
sarrhena longipes in my Synopsis of this family (hw. op. xiii. 
124). This species has been since described and figured by 
Dr. Eichler under the name of Anomospermum grandifolium. 
Its branches are fistulose, with very large leaves, upon unusually 
long and stiff petioles: these leaves are flaccid in texture, con- 
spicuously 5-nerved at base, the nerves being outwardly branched, 
little divaricating, extending in a nearly parallel direction for 
three-fourths of the length of the leaf, when they anastomose in 
an arching manner with the few lateral nerves which spring from 
the upper portion of the midrib; these nerves are all prominent 
and shining on both sides, as are also the very conspicuous 
transverse veins. In Anomospermum, on the contrary, the spe- 
cies are very lofty climbers, all the branches having a wood 
which is very compact and solid to the centre; the leaves are 
not a quarter the size of those of Eiissarrhena, and upon shorter 
and slender petioles; they are coriaceous and finely reticulated, 
with three simple slender nervures, springing from the base, 
running for a short distance near the margin, and soon anasto- 
mosing > with many others that spring from the midrib, so that 
they appear almost pinnately nerved, without the transverse 
veins which form so conspicuous a feature in Elissarrhena ; or 
more frequently the nerves and reticulations are wholly immersed 
in the thick parenchyma, so that they become almost impercep- 
tible. _ This extreme difference in the general appearance of the 
leaves is very striking. The inflorescence in Anomospermum is 
always glabrous, normally consisting of two axillary solitary 
flowers, each upon a pedicel the length of the petiole; but fre- 
quently upon the same plant we find in the axils a long aphyl- 
lous young branch, from which the nascent leaves have fallen 
away or are abortive, so that the inflorescence thus assumes the 
form of a very simple raceme, with two single pedicellated 
flowers in each axillule, and much longer than the entire leaf: 
the flowers are double the size, very glabrous; the petals are so 
very thick and compressed together that they resemble a central — 
fleshy disk; the anthers consist of two oblong cells dorsally 
affixed, each cell bur sting introrsely by a longitudinal fissure. 
On the other hand, in Elissarrhena the inflorescence is very 
tomentose, five- sixths to nine-tenths shorter than the petiole, con- 
sisting of a peduncle with its apex separated into three very short 
branches and again divided, each branchlet bearing three flowers 
upon pedicels so very short that they appear almost sessile ; all are 
thus closely approximated into a corymbulose and almost globular 
head on the summit of the peduncle: the sepals are pubescent 
on both sides; the petals are of thinner texture, more separated, 
cuneately orbicular, with the laterally lobed margins inflected, as 
