55° 
NATURE 
[Oct. 7, 1886 
of fruits, some of which were sown in the little garden 
belonging to the house I inhabited at the time in Caracas. 
Others I sent to several leading botanists in Europe, 
requesting them to give me their opinion about the plant ; 
the result, however, was negative, the fruit being to all of 
them a puzzle, just as it had been to myself. 
Meanwhile some of the seeds had germinated; I 
planted out three seedlings, which grew very vigorously, 
and in time produced an abundance of flowers, a// female 
ones. Their structure gave additional weight to the sup- 
position that the plant belonged to the Menispermacez, 
and believing it to be a new genus, I was anxious to dis- 
cover the male plant. In this pursuit the botanical 
interest went hand in hand with that of the horticulturist ; 
for although the plant is highly ornamental on account of 
its foliage, its principal merit as a decoration in a tropical 
garden consists in the striking contrast between the dark- 
green leaves and the large number of scarlet fruits, which 
bear the greatest resemblance to the half-ripe berries of 
the coffee-tree. 
For a long time all my efforts were unsuccessful. I 
had moreover occasion to convince myself that the plant 
was extremely rare in our flora, as only in two places of 
the above-mentioned ravine a few specimens hitherto 
have been found by myself and my collectors. 
In 1881 at last one of my men brought me a plant 
which he pronounced to be a male one. The plant was 
set between two female ones, and aftera couple of months 
I had the great satisfaction of beholding for the first time 
the male flowers that for several years had been the 
object of many a fatiguing search in the dense thickets 
of the little river of Guarenas. Both female plants pro- 
duced now a large crop of fruits, though I was unable to 
make out by what agency the transport of pollen was 
effected. Of animals I noticed on the plants only a small 
. 7 . . - | 
species of a green 7ettégonia (rather plentiful), some 
common mosquitoes, and a few caterpillars of Ophideres 
cacica.* It is not impossible that the mosquitoes were of 
some significance for the purpose of fecundation. I thought 
once the flowers might be of the anemophilous type ; but 
this is certainly a mistake, as they are so much hidden 
amongst the foliage that the wind can hardly reach 
them. 
I sent male and female flowers, as well as fruits, to 
Kew, and following the advice of Sir J. D. Hooker, 
likewise to Prof. Eichler, of Berlin, who recognised the 
plant as belonging to his genus Désciphania, and de- 
scribed it afterwards under the name of Dy¢sciphania 
Ernstit in Fahrbuch des Kon. Botan. Gart. zu Berlin, vol. 
ii., 1883, pp. 324-29, giving at the same time the analytical 
details of the flowers and fruit on Plate XII. of the volume 
referred to. As this work may not be easily accessible to 
all who take an interest in the facts I have to present 
hereafter, I deem it convenient to insert a summary de- 
scription of the species, giving, however, a fuller develop- 
ment to certain structural particulars which, in my 
opinion, possibly may have some bearing upon the chief 
point of my communication. 
Like many other Menispermacee, Déscéphanta bears 
root-tubers, which are, in good-sized plants, as large as a 
man’s fist, and weigh 1 lb. and even more. They contain 
a considerable quantity of ovoid starch grains, the largest 
measuring 0’04 by 0026 millim. The stem exhibits the 
compound structure usually found in climbing plants ; it 
soon becomes woody in its lower part, whilst at the same 
time the periderm increases greatly in thickness, and 
forms a very irregular spongy bark. The younger parts 
of the stem, as well as the branches, generally wind 
around any support they may encounter; but sometimes | 
* It is a singular coincidence that in one of these places another very 
curious Menispermacea was found, viz. a female plant of Odontocarya 
hederefolia, Miers. 
? The caterpillar and pupa of this beautiful moth were on this occasion 
described for the first time. See a note, “‘ Jugendstadien von Ophideres 
cacica,” in Karsch, /1:tomologische Nachrichten, 1885, pp. 6, 7. 
| the principal object of the present paper. 
they climb by means of the petioles, the basal part of 
which is rather abruptly thickened and variously curved, 
so that it serves as a hook, more or less, as in some 
species of Clematis. There are other branches which do 
not climb at all, but either hang down without showing 
any sign of torsion, or run in a straight line on the soil. 
The cortical system is very much developed, and the 
central parenchyma abounds in laticiferous cells, each 
one containing a great many nuclei and a viscid latex. 
The leaves are most singularly polymorphous on the 
same plant, as will be seen from Figs. 12 to 16, which are 
copied, as likewise all the others, from Prof. Eichler’s 
plate. The palmatisect leaf (Fig. 16) exhibits the basal 
thickening and inflection of the petiole, which I men- 
tioned before. 
The flowers are strictly dicecious, and in both sexes ar- 
ranged in axillary, centripetal, and drooping spikes, mea- 
suring from 8 to 25 centimetres in length. The rachis of 
the female spikes is very thin at the basal end, where it is 
scarcely 1 millimetre thick; but it increases gradually in 
thickness, and in many cases it measures at the opposite 
end 3 millimetres by 2, so that the extreme transverse 
sections are in the ratio of 1 to 6 approximately. Its 
tissue is gorged with latex, especially in the thicker part, 
which has an appearance as if it were due to a kind of 
normal hypertrophy. Not having actually any fresh 
male inflorescences, I am unable to say whether their 
rachis presents the same structure; amongst my old 
notes I cannot find anything referring to it. 
The flowers are so crowded that they touch each other, 
and hide the rachis and their little bracts completely. 
This is especially the case towards the apex of the spikes, — 
where not unfrequently two or three empty bracts are 
found, undoubtedly indications of as many suppressed or 
aborted flowers. Figs. I to 3 represent the male flower ; 
Figs. 4 to 7 the female one. Both have six large sepals — 
and six very small petals; in the former there are three 
stamens, in the latter three pistils, but in none the 
slightest rudiment of the organs of the other sex is to be 
seen. I have carefully examined hundreds of female 
flowers, and can most positively assert that this rule” 
holds good in every case, nor are there on the female 
plants any rudimentary male flowers, auxiliary stamens, 
or any other contrivances that could be considered as 
pollen-producing organs. , 
Fig. 8 represents an almost full-grown fruit in its 
natural size ; Fig. 9 is the seed, viewed from the flat side, 
magnified 25 times ; Fig. 10 is its longitudinal section, 
with the straight embryo zz sz¢w; and Fig. 1t isa trans- 
verse section of the same. The very peculiar wings of 
the seed develop gradually, as indicated by the letters a, 
4, and ¢, in the last-mentioned figure. 
I have thought it necessary to give a rather lengthy 
exposition of introductory matter, before entering upon 
The question 
of parthenogenesis in the vegetable kingdom is still 
strenuously objected to by many botanists, although it — 
is a thoroughly well-established fact in the domain of 
zoological science, so that there is @ f7zor7 really no reason 
for denying its existence in plants. It is, however, of the 
greatest importance to give in any particular case a most 
substantial and complete record of the leading facts, as 
well as of the concurrent circumstances, so as to enable 
the reader to get a full view of the matter, and form his 
own judgment accordingly, I hope to do the second, 
as far as it is pertinent, and shall now proceed to relate 
my observations on, and experiments with, Dzsciphania 
Ernstit, from which I have come to the conclusion that 
in this species we have really @ new case of partheno- 
genesis tn the vegetable kingdom. 
Long before I got the male plant of Désciphania, I 
had noticed that on my female plants appeared now and 
then a few fruits. Very naturally the idea crossed my 
mind that I might have before me a case of accidental 
: 
