Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 13 



four petals in the ? flower, its fruit being unknown. Ignoring 

 these well-marked distinctions, the authors of the ' Genera 

 Plantarum ' amalgamate Clypea, Ileocarpus, and Homocnemia 

 with Stephania, and in the four genera thus confounded together 

 they recognize only three species, whereas I have here enume- 

 rated, under well-defined characters, twenty-six species of Ste~ 

 phania, nine of Clypea, one oi Ileocarpus, and one of Homocnemia, 

 making in all thirty-seven species. Much perplexity has arisen 

 from the incomplete characters of the several species hitherto 

 described by botanists, so that it has been difficult to reduce 

 into consistent order many of the plants that have been referred 

 to them ; and, to add to this confusion, most of the specimens 

 now existing in herbaria appear to have been named at hazard : 

 no one seems to have taken the trouble to examine the structure 

 of the flowers, in which, notwithstanding their minute size, 

 good characters are found, corroborative of other features 

 obtainable from the differences that exist in the leaves, petioles, 

 and inflorescence. 



The species are found chiefly on the Indian continent and the 

 islands of its great archipelago, their range extending eastward 

 as far as China, Japan, and Australia, and westward to the limit 

 of Africa : the genus is therefore quite foreign to the continent 

 of America. It may be here observed that the hairs of the 

 pubescence/whenever found in this genus, are short and articu- 

 lated, as they are likewise in Clypea. 



Stephania, Lour.; — Clypea, W. ^ A. {non Bl.) ; — Cissampelos 

 [in parte) auctorum; — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, spa- 

 thulato-oblonga vel linearia, biseriata, quorum 3 interiora 

 latiora, membranacea, sestivatione imbricata. Petala 3, sepalis 

 exterioribus opposita, cuneato-rotunda vel ovata, breviora, 



» carnosula. Stamen unicum, centrale; filamentum teres, se- 

 palis sequilongum vel brevius ; anthera annularis, 6-locellata, 

 ad marginem connectivi peltatim affixa, rima horizontali dehis- 

 cens. — Fcem. Sepala 3, cuneato-oblonga. Petala 3, sub- 

 rotunda, subcuneata, carnosula. Stamina nulla. Ovarium 

 ovatum, gibbum, glabrum, 1-loculare, ovulo solitario parieti 

 appenso. Stylus subnullus. Stigma subsessile, excentricura, 

 insequaliter 3-6-laciniatum; laciniis acutis, subreflexis. Drupa 

 earnosa, glabra; putamen osseum,obovatum,valde compressum, 

 1-loculare, loculo peripherico et hippocrepiformi circa con- 

 dylum voluto, utrinque seriebus 2 concentricis tuberculorum 

 liris ssepe connexis extus armato ; condylus excentralis, lamini- 

 formis, discoideus, utrinque subconcavus, medio foramina 

 distincto perforatus. Semen hippocrepiforme, dorso convexum, 

 ventre subplanum; inteyumentum tenuiter membranaceum, 



