490 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacez. 
menta tenuia, ventre linea longitudinali incrassata signata, 
et hine in striam insinuata: embrye (e fructu immaturo ad- 
hue vix distinguendus) in albumine carnoso inclusus. 
Frutices scandentes, in Asia tropica, presertim in insults, vigentes ; 
folia magna, ovata, acuminata, coriacea, 3-nervia, sepius glabra, 
longe petiolata: racemi plurimi vel solitarui, supra-axillares, 
simplices ; flores breviter pedicellatt. . 
1. Tinomiscium petiolare, nob. ;—Penang. 
2. Javanicum, nob. ;—Java. 
These are fully described in the ‘Contributions to Botany,’ 
vol. iil. 
8. BuRASAIA. 
This genus, proposed by Du Petit Thouars in 1806 for some 
Madagascar plants, was included with much hesitation in the 
Lardizabalacee by Prof. Decaisne, in his excellent monograph of 
that family, his doubts being founded on the minute size of its 
flowers, the absence of sterile ovaria in the male plant, its introrse 
anthers, its fertile ovaries having only a single ovule, the coty- 
ledons of its embryo being large, foliaceous, and divaricately 
placed in distinct cells of the albumen, characters quite opposed 
to Lardizabalacee ; but the consideration of its distinctly 3- 
foliolate leaves, and of the seed being invested by a papillose vis- 
~ cous envelope, preponderated in favour of its position in the 
former family. I believe I was the first to determine its true 
affinity, in my ‘ Notes on Menispermacee, in 1851, when it was 
placed in my tribe Heterocliniee. Lately, however, the authors 
of the new ‘ Genera Plantarum ’ have removed it from that tribe 
without stating their reasons, and with seeming contradiction 
have placed it in a doubtful position at the tail of the Pachy- 
gonee, acknowledging at the same time the conformity of its em- 
bryo with that of the Heterocliniee! After the publication of my 
“ remarks” above stated, I had an opportunity of examining the 
typical specimen in the Paris herbarium ; and though it has only 
male flowers, the parts accord so well with those of the Hetero- 
cliniee, that, having regard also to the details of Du Petit Thouars — 
and Decaisne respecting the structure of the fruit and seed, I~ 
have no hesitation whatever in retaining the genus in the position — 
I had long ago assigned to it. The careful examination of the 
specimen of another species in the British Museum has since ~ 
confirmed this decision. The genus is certainly singular in 
having 38-foliolate leaves; but it must be remembered that through- 
out the family they are most frequently 3-nerved, and that the 
leaves of Jateorhiza and Calycocarpum offer a near approach to — 
those of Burasaia in being deeply 3-5-lobed: we know that 
similar grades of division are common in many families. 
