320 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacez. 
et tortuoso, flavide pruinoso ; racemo fructifero petiolo 3-plo 
breviore, pedicellis alternis, patentibus; drupis majoribus, 
subglobosis, uviformibus, flavescenti-puberulis vel pruinosis. 
—In India Orientali, v. s. in herb. Hook. Assam (Griffiths) 
et Sandoway (Capt. Margrave). 
This species is.said by different botanists to be common in 
Sumatra, the Molucca Islands, and Sylhet, and ought therefore 
to occur frequently in collections ; but it is strange that this is 
the first specimen I have scen in any herbarium that corresponds 
with the written descriptions of it, among which Colebrook’s is 
fullest in details ; but he says the leaves are remote, which seems 
at variance with the specimen in question. Whether this plant 
truly represents the Cocculus crispus, DC., time must show. 
The branchlets, 4 lines in diam., have a thin lax bark, of peculiar 
appearance: it is longitudinally corrugated or crispated, with 
numerous raised cup-shaped cicatrices, that leave no impression 
upon the wood beneath—a character that distinguishes it from 
most other species: these cicatrices are placed promiscuously all 
round the stem of the branch, at intervals of 1—4 inch apart, 
presenting a very different appearance from the verrucosities of 
the bark of other species, which are caused by the swelling 
of the lenticels, and usually appear as minute bead-like promi- 
nences round a punctiform centre. In the specimen above 
cited six or seven petioles are entangled together by their 
tortuous bases, just as they have fallen off in a heap from the 
stem; and on a new branchlet a number of young leaves ‘are 
to be seen crowded together in a similar manner. The » 
leaves are 43 inches long, the depth of the basal attenua- 
tion and corresponding sinus on each side being 8 lines; they 
are 4 inches broad, the petiole being of the unusual length of 
54 inches and 2 line in diam., which is three times as long as, and 
stouter in proportion to the size of the blade than in 7. palmi- 
nervis, which plant I was at first inclined to refer to 7. crispa: 
the axils of the secondary nervures, and the five principal nerves 
at their confluence with the petiole, are extended by a web- 
shaped membrane. The fructiferous raceme is 21 inches long, 
the pedicels rigid, much divaricated, 2 inch long; the drupes 
8 lines long, 6 lines in diam. when dry ; the putamen, 6} lines 
long, has a scrobiculated surface covered with a white pruinose 
down. Colebrook (/.c.) gives a tolerably correct analysis of the 
fruit and seed. 
Var. nitidiuscula ;—foliis oblongo-ovatis, profunde et late cor- 
datis, e medio sensim angustioribus, apice subito acuminatis, 
utrinque glaberrimis, subtus presertim nitentibus, hine nervis 
5, ad concursum membranula conspicua connexis; petiolo 
