L,'irl,lmnhia.] V. MENISPERMACE/E. 33 



Anthers opposite the petals, close together forming a head. Female flowers and 

 fruit unknown. — ^^An evergreen glabrous climber. Leaves ohartaceous, ovate- 

 lanceolate. Inflorescence in racemose, axillary and terminal panicles. 



1. Ii. clamboides (Clambus-like), F. v. M. Fragm. x. 68. Leaves 8 to 7in. 

 long, deep-green and very glossy on the upper surface, the apex shortly acuminate, 

 prominently reticulate. Panicles a few or several inches long. ; pedicels capillare 

 1^ to 3 lines long, scattered or fasciculate ; bracts very minute. Sepals about 1 

 line long, staminal column and anthers of about an equal length. 



Hab. : Tropical scrubs. 



9. STEPHANIA, Lour. 



(Alluding to the anthers being united and forpiing a crown.) 

 (Clypea, Blmne.) 

 Male flowers : Sepals 6, 8, or 10, in 2 series. Petals 3, 4, or 5, shorter than 

 the sepals, obpvate. Stamens united in a column bearing a flat disk, with- the 

 sessi,le anthers confluent into a single ring round the margin. Feipale flowers : 

 Sepals 3, 4, or 5. Petals as many. Carpel 1, with a divided stigma. Drupe 

 compressed, the scar of the style not far from the base. Putamen horseshoe- 

 shaped, with an open concavity on each side. Seed curved, with little albumen. 

 Embryo linear, with closed cotyledons. Leaves mostly peltate. Flowers in 

 simple or compound umbels. 



A small genus, extending over tropical or subtropical Africa and Asia. One of the Queensland 

 species common over the whole range, the other endemic. 



Stems glabrous or pubescent . . 1. S. liernandiafolia. 



Stems prickly 2. S. aculeata. 



1. S. hernandisefolia (Hernandia-like), Walp.; Hook, and IJumis. Fl. Ind. 

 i. 196 ; Benth. Fl. Aiistr. i. 56. A glabrous or more -or less pubescent climber. 

 Leaves broadly ovate, orbicular, or nearly triangular, usually more or less peltate 

 at the base, the larger ones 3 or 4in. long, on a petiole of 2 or 3in., but often 

 much smaller, glabrous or pubescent underneath. Peduncles axillary, shorter 

 than or rather longer than the petioles, bearing an umbel of about 5 rays, each 

 ray terminated by a head or partial umbel of 8 to 12 small sessile or shortly 

 pedicellate flowers, or the partial umbel again compound. — F. v. M. PI. Vict, 

 i. 220 ; Clypea liernandifolia, W. and Am. Prod. i. 14 ; Wight, Ic. t. 939. 



Hab.: Coast lands, south and north. 



The root of this plant is bitter, and an extract of it is extremely poisonous to frogs. — Dr. 

 T. L. Bancroft. 



2. S> aculeata (prickly). Bail. A prickly climber, the stems ribbed, 

 prickles reflexed, Of irregular length. Leaves broadly triangular, and more or 

 less peltate at the base, 2 to 2 Jin. long, and the same broad at the base, apex 

 glandular apiculate, lower angles rounded, 5 to 7-nerved, margins entire, 

 glabrous, pale or glancescent on the under side. Petioles slender, armed with 

 reflexed prickles, 1 to l^in. long. Panicles of male flowers axillary, very slender, 

 2 to 4in. long, the branches almost capillary, with few small lanceolate petiplate 

 leaves or bracts, on lateral shoots ; these bracts are often larger and of a similar 

 shape to the stem leaves. Flowers minute, mostly under 1 Hne in difl,meter when 

 expanded. Sepals 6, imbricate, obovate, prettily veined. Petals 6, scarcely half 

 the length of the sepals, rotundate, imbricate. Stamens united in a very short 

 column, bearing at the summit 3 rather large didymous anthers. Female flowers 

 and fruit unknown. ' 



Ha,b.: Mount Gravatt and Taylor's Range. 



This hitherto undescribed plant is probably plosely allied to the trqpical African species, of 

 which also the fruit is unknown — S. latificata, Miers. The flowers of that plant, however, are 

 said to have but 3 petals. 



An extract of the root extremely poisonous,— P'". T. L, Bancroft, 



