256 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermaceae. 



Daily sericeous, very .fleshy, and valvate in aestivation ; in Ane- 

 lasma the corresponding sepals are glabrous, more membrana- 

 ceous in texture, and (though slightly) are decidedly imbricated 

 in aestivation. In Abuta, in the male flower, each stamen bears 

 a 2-lobed anther, the lobes separated from one another by a 

 deep longitudinal channel or by a broader interval, and attached 

 by their entire length to a broad filament ; each lobe opens late- 

 rally by a vertical or oblique fissure : in Anelasma each stamen 

 bears only a single globular anther, apicifixed upon, and half 

 immersed in, the summit of a broad fleshy filament, burst- 

 ing across its apex by a transverse gaping fissure into two 

 valves, antical and postical, and divided inside by a sep- 

 tum parallel to the valves, as is well shown in Poppig's figure. 

 In the female flower, the structure of the sterile stamens in 

 Anelasma is difl^erent : the ovaries are quite glabrous, with a 

 different stigma, while in Abuta and Batschia the ovaries are 

 densely pilose; the drupes in the two latter cases are thickly 

 tomentose, while in Anelasma they are quite glabrous. In the 

 case of larger flowers, such diffierences as I have indicated would 

 not fail to be recognized in their full importance, and there can 

 be no justification for ignoring them, or considering them as 

 too trivial, on account of their diminutive size. Here assuredly 

 there is sufficient evidence to show that Anelasma ought not to 

 be confounded with Abuta ; but other diffierences will be seen 

 when we come to speak of Anelasma. 



Until lately, I had maintained Batschia as an independent 

 genus, distinguished from Abuta by its stamens, which are 

 rigidly hispid, while the small globular cells of the anthers are 

 separated by a much wider interval, and laterally imbedded in 

 a very thick filament, sometimes so deeply as to be invisible 

 from the front; and, furthermore, the species have glabrous 

 leaves. As these characters sometimes run into one another, I 

 have now retained Batschia as a section of Abuta, distinguished 

 by the characters just mentioned. In Batschia, although the 

 leaves are glabrous and generally smaller, they accord with 

 Abuta in their ramified nervation, in which respect Anelasma 

 diff*ers from the whole group. All the species of Abuta seem to 

 be scandent plants, while those of Batschia appear to be erect 

 shrubs. When these plants are better known, I think it very 

 likely that Batschia will establish its right to rank as a distinct 

 genus. 



While this paper is in the printer's hands, I have received 

 from Dr. Eichler the 25th Number of the * Ratisbon Flora' (July 

 1864), giving an abstract of his arrangement of American Meni- 

 spermecB, already printed for Prof, von Martius's ' Flora Brasi- 

 liensis.' Dr. Eichler has there adopted the views of other bota- 



