MENISPEEMACEAE 203 



acuminate, entire or sometimes coarsely 1- or 2-toothed leaflets 5 to 8 cm 

 long, the tip minutely mucronate, base rounded, the tendril taking the 

 place of the third leaflet slender, 3-partite at the apex. Flowers white or 

 greenish-white, their pedicels up to 4 cm in length. Sepals 4, about 9 mm 

 long. Petals about 12, liriear-spatulate, 2 cm long or less, 1 to 2 mm wide. 

 Achenes 10 to 15, about 2 cm long, hirsute, narrowed above into a slender 

 beak, not tailed. 



In thickets ' near the Pasay cemetery, fl. April-May; of very local 

 occurrence in Luzon. Endemic. 



52. MENISPERMACEAE (MooNSEED OR Macabuhay Family) 



Twining or climbing, slender or stout, subherbaceous or woody vines. 

 Leaves alternate, entire or lobed, usually palmately, rarely penninerved; 

 stipules none. Flowers small, dioecious, solitary, fascicled, racemose or 

 panicled. Sepals 6, rarely fewer or more numerous, imbricate in 2 to 4 

 series. Petals . usually 6, rarely fewer or none, free or connate. Maie 

 flowers: Stamens hypogynous, usually one opposite each petal; anthers 

 free or connate. Rudimentary ovary small or none. Female flowers : 

 Staminodes 6 or 0. Ovaries 3, rarely 1 to 6 or more; style terminal, 

 simple or divided; ovules solitary. Ripe carpels drupaceous. Seed usually 

 hooked or reniform. 



Genera 63, species about 360, in all tropical countries, few in some tem- 

 perate regions, 15 genera and 26 species in the Philippines. 



1. Leaves penninerved 1. Pycnarrhena 



1. Leaves palmately '3- to 7-nerved. 



2. Sepals and petals 6; bracts very small or none 2. Tinospora 



2. Sepals and petals 4; bracts on the female inflorescence prominent. 



3. Cissampeloa 



1. PYCNARRHENA Miers 



Climbing woody vines or suberect shrubs. Leaves oblong, coriaceous, 

 entire, penninerved. Cymes axillary, short, usually fascicled. Male 

 flowers: Sepals 6 to 9, the outer ones small, bract-like, the interior ones 

 gradually larger, the innermost suborbicular, concave. Petals 2 to 6, 

 smaller than the inner sepals. Stamens 2 to 10; filaments Very short or 

 none. Female flowers: Sepals and petals as in the mal«s. Carpels 2 to 4, 

 glabrous or pilose. Drupes 3, or fewer by abortion, subglobose; style-scar 

 lateral. (Greek "dense" and "male" from the dense inflorescence.) 



Species 17, south-eastern Asia through Malaya to Australia, 3 or 4 in 

 the Philippines. 



1. P. manillensis Vid. Ambal (Tag.). 



A suberect or climbing shrub 1 m high or more. Leaves subcoriaceous, 

 shining, elliptic-ovate, to oblong-elliptic, 13 to 30 cm long, acuminate, the 

 nerves 5 to 7 pairs, very prominent on the lower surface. Male inflores- 

 cences axillary, short, pilose. The flowers crowded, yellowish, the sepals 7, 

 the outer ones small, the 5 inner ones 1.5 to 2 mm in diameter. Petals 

 about 3, obovate. Stamens 8 to 10. Drupes ellipsoid-globose, 10 to 15 mm 

 long. 



San Juan del Monte (Vidal), fl. June. Of local occurrence in the Phil- 

 ippines. Endemic. 



