Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacee. 261 
also differs in the number and form of its sepals, and in the 
globular shape of its larger fleshy petals. 
DesmMonemMa, nob.—Flores dioici. Mase. Sepala 6, biseriata, 
oblonga aut subovata, submembranacea, nervose picta, gla- 
bra, 3 interiora exterioribus 2-plo longiora et 3-plo latiora, 
eestivatione imbricata. Petala 6, biseriata, quorum 3 exteriora 
cuneato-ovata, submembranacea, plana aut subconcava, sepalis 
dimidio breviora, 3 interiora paululo breviora, 3-plo angus- 
tiora, linearia, erecta, fusco-carnosula, longitudinaliter canali- 
culata. Stamina 3, monadelpha, petalis equilonga; fila- 
menta longe ultra medium in columnam centralem coadunata, 
summo libera, complanata, suberecta; anthere subglobose, 
conniventes, apicifixee, 2-lobee, lobis sulco laterali subextrorsum 
et bivalvatim dehiscentibus. 
Frutex scandens Africe australis, habitu fere Tinosporee ; folia de/- 
toideo-orbicularia, cordata, obtusa, e basi 5-nervia, nervis extus 
ramosis, glabra, membranacea, longiuscule petiolata: racemus ¢ 
_ simplex, supra-azillaris, folio sublongior, glaber ; rachis gra- 
cilis, remotiuscule bracteolata; pedicellus bracteola 2-plo lon- 
gior, 1-florus ; flos parvus. 
The only species will be described in the third volume of the 
‘Contributions to Botany.’ 
Desmonema Caffra, nob.—In Africa australi: v. s. in herb. 
Hook. 3, Natal (Gerard, 1976). 
61. RHAPTONEMA. 
The plant here described is a native of Madagascar, and the 
type of a new genus now proposed. It is a shrub of low growth, 
with straight, somewhat slender, tomentose branchlets, with 
oblong leaves having alternate nerves which anastomose every- 
where with one another at short intervals, making thus a large 
areolar network of veins which gives them a very peculiar ap- 
pearance ; they are subpilose above, sulcate along the midrib, 
furnished beneath with a yellowish pubescence, the petiole being 
somewhat short and pubescent. The ¢ inflorescence is a raceme- 
like panicle, which springs from the axils of the young upper 
leaves, and is therefore almost terminal; the somewhat slender 
rachis, which is covered with yellowish pubescence, is about half 
the length of the ordinary leaves, having rather distant, very short 
branches, with still shorter branchlets, which bear from one to 
three flowers at their apex; the flower is small, consisting of 
nine equal spathulately linear sepals, rounded at their apex, in 
three alternate series; six petals in two series, equal, rather 
more than half the length of the sepals, oblong, narrowing at 
