MENISPERMACEvE. 7 



of Cocculus. But the inner sepals are still very large as compared 

 with the outer ones. The petals are short thick and fleshy, each 

 surrounding the foot of its superposed stamen ; by their approxi- 

 mation they simulate a sort of large triangular disk, hollowed into 

 six pits. The fruit, moreover, is remarkable for being straight. 

 The inside of the stone bears only a vertical projecting blade, which 

 makes a straight groove down the inner face of the seed, whose 



OCT ' 



ruminated albumen is divided into horizontal lamelke. The three 

 or four species known come from Tropical America. 1 



Sarcopetalum 1 has the same fruit as Cocculus or Menispermum, and 

 the same linear albuminous embryo. The perianth, too, is some- 

 times similarly formed of six sepals and six petals. In this case the 

 genus is only distinguished by the thickness of its petals, compar- 

 able to those of Anomospermum, and forming thick wrinkled irregularly 

 obovoid fleshy masses ; and by the androceum, which consists of a 

 central erect fleshy column, divided above into from two to four 

 short diverging branches, each bearing the two adnate cells of the 

 horizontal anther. However, botanists have placed this genus in 

 the Cissampelidece 3 because the number of pieces in its perianth often 

 falls below that given above ; the number of petals and sepals being 

 reduced to two or three of each. 8. Haroeianum F. Muell, the 

 only known species of this genus, is an Australian liana, with alter- 

 nate cordate leaves, and flowers forming solitary or fascicled simple 

 lateral racemes. 



II. PACHYGONE SERIES. 



In flowers and vegetative organs Pachygone* has all the characters 

 of Cocculus ; and the only reason for making it the type of a distinct 

 series is that its seeds are exalbuminous. The embryo is large and 

 curved like a horseshoe, with a short superior embryo, and thick 



ser. 3, xiv. 101. — Benth., in Jourrt. Linn. Soc, Miees, in Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, xix. 90. — 



v. Suppl., 48.— B. H., Gen., 35, 961, n. 11.— Benth , Fl. Austral, i. 56. 

 ? Elisarrhena Miees, in Ann. Nat. Eist., ser. 3, 3 We, however, remove it hither because the 



xiii. 124. regularity of its double perianth may be perfect, 



1 Eichl., in Mart. Fl. Bras., Menisp., 169, t, and the female flowers lack the unilateral 



37 3g_ arrangement characterising those of Cissampe- 



' 2 F. Muell., PI. Indig. Col. Vict., i. 26, 221, lideee. 

 t. Suppl. iii.— B. H., Gen., 37, 962, n. 19.— 4 Miees, in Ann. Nat. Mist., ser. 2, vii. 43 



ser. 3, xix. 319.— B. H., Gen., 38, 963, n. 23. 



