50 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



constant in the same panicle of flowers, varying from 7 to 12, 

 including 3 minute basal bracts, which also vary in number and 

 size; they are much imbricated. There are no petals. The 

 drupes are fleshy and gibbously oval, the persistent stigma 

 being very excentric, and much nearer the base than the apex : 

 here the gynajcium by subsequent growth is converted into a 

 stout cylindrical carpophorum *, which becomes divided at its 

 summit into 2, 3, or 4 forks, answering to the number of drupes 

 perfected, leaving cicatrices corresponding with the number of 

 abortive ovaries — a development similar to that I have described 

 in Tiliacora and Sciadotenia. The putamen is oval, with a short 

 reniform sinus on its ventral face ; it is of a thin corneous tex- 

 ture, its smooth surface is grooved in a net-like form, the grooves 

 being filled with capillary fibres, from which it may be inferred 

 that in a fresh state its mesocarp consists of aggregated masses 

 like those observed in Anomospermum ; on the side of the reni- 

 form depression of the putamen, there are two small circular 

 apertures leading into two distinct chambers of the large sub- 

 globular condyle, which projects far into the centre of the cell, 

 and the integuments of the seed enter into the deep groove along 

 its face, and are there firmly attached along the line of the 

 raphe. The structure of its seed quite corresponds with the 

 rest of the Heterocliniece, but the fissures of the ruminated albu- 

 men do not penetrate so deeply as in many genera : the coty- 

 ledons are extremely divaricated, and enclosed in distinct cells of 

 the albumen. 



The authors of the ' Flora Indica ' acknowledge only the ori- 

 ginal type, but A. lemniscata from Java, as well as others to be 

 described in the ' Contributions to Botany,* are distinct species ; 

 they do not admit A. flavescens, which appears to me correctly 

 referred here by Wight and Arnott, and they regard the Ceylon 

 species, A. toxifera, as being identical with the type ; but the 

 grounds on which they are considered distinct will be stated. 

 Concerning A. Bauerana of Endlicher, I can learn nothing : it is 

 figured in his ' Atakta ' — a book I have not been able to consult, 

 nor can I find in any botanical work a description of the species. 



Anamirta, Coleb. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 7-12, imbri- 

 cata, quorum 2-4 exteriora minora, ovata, concava, submem- 

 branacea. Petala nulla. Stamina 15-55, receptaculo parvo 

 sessili, pluriseriatim in globum aggregata : filamenta fere ob- 

 soleta : anthera 4-lob8e, sub-4-locellatge, rima transversa 2-val- 



* It would be well to confine the use of the term Carpophorum to those 

 kinds of development resulting from the growth of the torus, leaving the 

 word Carpodium to designate the stipitate support where it is an incre- 

 ment of the fruit itself. 



