98 .Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



again in 1837, but only in fruit; this enabled me to ascertain 

 its peculiar carpological structure — an investigation that after- 

 wards led me into an examination of the whole family. In 184<5 

 my son sent me, from nearly the same locality, an imperfect 

 specimen of another plant, which, from the similar form of its 

 leaves and petioles and the structure of its flowers, appeared 

 like a male species, and accordingly, in my "Notes on Meni- 

 spermacese," in 1851, I alluded to it under this belief; for its 

 floral parts, though in quinary numbers, presented the usual 

 biserial arrangement of alternate sepals and ten stamens, the 

 outer five being quite free, with the same number of fleshy 

 scale-like petals at their base, while the five internal sta- 

 mens were monadelphous for half their length. This so far 

 appeared to correspond with Coscinium, Chasmanthera, and Pse- 

 lium, except in the number of its parts ; but, as I had met with 

 the number five in other genera, the whole structure seemed 

 conformable with Menispermacea. It is true that I found an 

 occasional flower which, with a similar arrangement, presented 

 the addition of a single 1-celled, 1-ovular ovary in the centre; 

 but I had observed a similar occurrence in Anomospermum and 

 Tiliacora. A more careful examination of the stem of the plant 

 afterwards convinced me that it was not Menispermaceous, but 

 a species of Jatropha, with occasional hermaphrodite flowers. 

 The fact is worth recording, as it off'ers another coincidence in 

 the resemblance of the male flowers of some Euphorbiacea 

 to those of Menispermacea, as St. Hilaire long before pointed 

 out in the case of some species of Phyllanthus. The authors of 

 the 'Flora Indica' (p. 171) have made some valuable observa- 

 tions, showing several points of resemblance in the floral struc- 

 ture of these two families; and the case above cited afibrds a 

 strong proof of the truth of their remarks. The authors of the 

 new * Genera Plantarum,' in excluding Odontocarya from the 

 order, and referring it to EuphorbiacetB, probably had the cir- 

 cumstance above mentioned in their recollection ; but they for- 

 got at the same time that the genus maintains its ground upon 

 the unquestionable organization of its seed, upon the habit of 

 the plant, and upon the structure of its wood. The chief pecu- 

 liarity of the genus consists in its putamen, which has a scuti- 

 form condyle as in Calycocarpum, Aspidocarya, Jateorhiza, Para- 

 hcBna, and Rhigiocarya, and it is covered with a matted, short, 

 papillose coating, imbedded in the fleshy pulp of its mesocarp, 

 as in Jateorhiza, Burasaia, and Hamatocarpus. Most of the 

 species resemble Tinospora in their habit and in their cordate, 

 glabrous, membranaceous leaves upon long petioles ; the inflo- 

 rescence is in slender racemes, longer than the petiole; the 

 fructiferous racemes are somewhat longer, and, in the typical 



