252 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



Mr. W. H. Baxter, and Mr. Cox for the names of, and oppor- 

 tunities of examining, many of the exotic plants mentioned in 

 this paper. 

 Edenbridge, Sept. 10, 1864. 



[To be continued.] 



XXX. — On the Menispermacese. 

 By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



[Continued from p. 103.] 



15. TiLIACORA. 



This genus was first proposed by Colebrook, in 1819, for the 

 Menispermum polycarpon, Roxb. ; but, as he was unacquainted 

 with its carpological features, the genus was not adopted by 

 subsequent botanists. DeCandoUe, in his 'Prodromus' (1824), 

 did not recognize it; for he named the same plant Cocculus 

 acuminatus : from that time it continued unnoticed until 1851 

 (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vii. 36), when I first pointed out the 

 identity of the two plants, and described the structure of the 

 seed ; and this at once established the validity of Tiliacora. 

 This genus, peculiar to Asia, is represented in the New World 

 by Abnta, Batschia, and Anelasma : all nearly correspond in 

 their floral structure, and resemble one another in the remark- 

 able development of the seed — features which entitle them to 

 rank in a distinct tribe, the Tiliacorea. It is surprising that 

 the authors of the ' Flora Indica' and of the ' Genera Plantarum* 

 have refused to acknowledge the validity of this very natural 

 group, and have placed these genera in the same tribe with 

 Cocculus, thus mingling in confusion genera with a very rumi- 

 nated albumen and a very slender embryo having incumbent coty- 

 ledons as much attenuated as their very slender radicle, with 

 other genera having a simple albumen and an embryo with 

 accumbent, broad, foliaceous cotyledons — characters perfectly 

 irreconcileable in any arrangement that lays claim to consistency. 

 The flowers in this genus, though usually dioecious, are some- 

 times polygamous ; they have nine to twelve sepals in ternate 

 series, the three internal ones being much larger, and valvate in 

 aestivation ; they have six minute petals appearing like nectarial 

 scales, and six stamens placed opposite to them, all inserted to- 

 gether upon a short columnar receptacle, on which three puncti- 

 form rudimentary ovaries are placed. In the numerous speci- 

 mens of Tiliacora that I have seen, 1 have not yet found a female 

 flower; I have, however, met with two species in which they are 

 polygamous : in one case there are six petals, only three stamens, 



