488 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacez. 
All the plants I have referred to this genus coincide with 
Loureiro’s specimen in a very peculiar feature : the two principal 
nerves which spring from the base are connate with the midrib, 
sometimes for half an inch in length, so that, technically speak- 
ing, they are triplinerved: the leaves are rather large, oblong, 
generally very coriaceous, the nervures are scarcely prominent 
on either side, the reticulated veins being wholly immersed, and 
hardly distinguishable, the petiole is rigid, very tumid at its 
apex, and still more swollen and tortuous at its base. The in- 
florescence is axillary, and in the male forms a very lax, wide- 
spreading panicle, as long as, or three times the length of the 
petiole; but in the female the panicle is compounded only to 
the second degree, is more than twelve times the length of the 
petiole, with elongated patent branches, and rather long, distant, 
1-flowered pedicels. 
Freravrea, Lour.—Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 9, imterdum 
12, in ordine ternario imbricatim disposita, exteriora bractei- 
formia, 6; interiora multo majora, ovata vel oblonga, medio 
crassiuscula, margine membranacea et denticulato-erosa. Pe- 
tala nulla (nisi 6 carnosula filamenta amplectentia et is arcte 
accreta). Stamina 6, inter se libera, centralia, fasciculata ; 
filamenta crassa, subcompressa, subincurvata, infra antheram 
linea prominente transversali cincta, carimaque antica notata 
(an petala accreta ?) : anthere oblonge, coriacez, 2-lobe, lobis 
paulo divaricatis, connectivo subimmersis, rima marginali 
utringque dehiscentibus. Ovaria rudimentaria nulla. Fam. 
Petala aut stamina sterilia 6, lineari-oblonga, obtusa, car- 
nosula, ad basin gynzcii columnaris affixa, eo paulo longiora, 
sepalis 2-3-plo minora, erecta. Ovaria 3, summo gynecii 
insita, gibboso-ovata, erecta: stylus nullus ; stigma subexcen- 
tricum, e punctis globosis minutis sessile. Drupe 3, oblongo- 
ovatee, subcompresse, carnose, leves: putamen oblongum, 
compressum, dorso convexiusculum, ventre planius, et hine 
sulco profundo longitudinali notatum, 1-loculare, 1-spermum ; 
condylus e sulci duplicatura in carinam linearem fere ad 
centrum loculi protensam internus, et longitudinalis: semen 
loculo conforme: integumenta tenuia, linea longitudinali 
ventrali incrassata et hine ad condylum adherentia: embryo 
(e fructu immaturo adhue vix plane visus) cotyledonibus 
foliaceis divaricatis, in albumine carnoso inclusus. 
Frutices scandentes, in Asia intertropica, presertim in insulis 
vigentes ; folia ovata aut oblonga, acuminata, coriacea, gla- 
berrima, triplinervia, longe petiolata; panicula axillaris, laxe 
et latissime expansa, 2 longissima; drupe flave. 
1. Fibraurea tinctoria, Lour. ;—China. 
