Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacee. 263 
branches horizontally patent and gradually decreasing upwards; 
these are again and again divided, by branchlets standing at 
right angles with each other, all elongated, the last series being 
very slender, 1-14 inch long, furnished at close bracteolated 
intervals with three or four fasciculated minute flowers on 
very short pedicels. The habit of the plant is therefore very 
peculiar. The flower consists of six concave ovate sepals in 
two series, the outer being very briefly connate at base, the inner 
equal, alternate, and free; six fleshy petals somewhat shorter, 
obovate, in two series, the inner plane, the outer ones alternate, 
with their lateral margins inflected ; three monadelphous sta- 
mens, whose filaments are united for three-quarters of their 
length into a central column, their apices free, each bearing 
two separated anther-lobes, adnate by their side and back to the 
filament, and bursting somewhat extrorsely by a longitu- 
dinal furrow. It will be seen that Elissarrhena and Scia- 
dotenia, both from Guiana, have leaves similar in size and shape 
to those of Somphoxylon, and have also soft-wooded fistulose 
branches, thus offering a general resemblance; but the very 
expanded and peculiar inflorescence of the latter and the struc- 
ture of its flower remove all further analogy. There is no evi- 
dence in the character of the plant that can indicate the tribe 
to which the genus belongs. 
Sompuoxyton, Kichler ;—Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, bi- 
serialia, alterna, concava, glabra, quorum 3 exteriora ovato- 
lanceolata, dimidio breviora, inter se basi breviter connata, 3 
interiora late obovata. Petala 6, biseriata, sepalis dimidio 
breviora, obovato-elliptica, carnosula, 3 interiora plana, 3 ex- 
teriora alterna, lateribus inflexis. Stamina 3, monadelpha; 
filamenta crassiuscula, pro majore parte in columnam cen- 
tralem coalita; anthere majuscule, ad dorsum et latera 
- filamenti adnate, 2-lobe, lobis subglobosis, dissitis, singulis 
sulco longitudinali subextrorsum dehiscentibus. 
Frutex Guiane Bataviane glaberrimus, ligno mollissimo sub- 
' spongioso ; folia majuscula, oblonga, imo leviter vel subcordata, 
apice repente cuspidata, penninervia, concoloria, petiolata: pa- 
nicula g magna, late ramosa, bracteolata, ramis longis patentim 
divaricatis, sursum decrescentibus, iterum bis patentim expansis, 
ramulis ¢ertiariis longiusculis, gracilibus, axillulis approximatis, 
flores 3-4 brevissime pedicellatos gerentibus; flores minimi, 
glabri. 
The characters of the only species will be given in the third 
volume of my ‘ Contributions.’ 
Somphoxylon Wellschlegelii, Kichl. in Mart. Fl. Bras. xxxviii. 
