Tinomiscium.] flora indica. 305 



leviter trisulcum, snlcis longitudinalibus, vasa nutrientia continentibus, iiitus tricos- 

 tatum, inter cnira tenuissimum. Semen putaiuiui conforme. Testa tenuissima, mem 

 branacea, fuaca, facie interna crassiuscala. Embryo semiui conformis, amygdalinus, 

 suberoso-camosuB, leviter sulcatus. Eadieula styli cicatricem spectans, brevissima. 

 Cotyledones elongatte, plano-convexse, semicylindricae, uncinatse, apice obtusse, longi- 

 tudinaliter leviter sulcatse. 



We bave placed this very remarkable but unfortunately little-known plant provi- 

 sionally in tbe genus Fibraurea, on account of tbe resemblance of the leaves and 

 general aspect. We obtained only one fruiting branch, which was brought to us soon 

 • after our arrival in the Khasia, from an elevation of about 3000 feet, and every effort 

 to procure more was unsuccessful. The fruit of Fibraurea is still almost unlmown, 

 but immature imperfect specimens in Mr. Bentham's Herbarium resemble what the 

 young fruit of this plant may be assumed to be. 



F. Hiematocarpa is undoubtedly one of the most interesting plants of this family 

 which have yet been found. The very large size of the fruit, and its peculiar struc- 

 ture, are alike unique in the Order. It is nevertheless, though exalbuminous, an 

 undoubted Meuispermaceous plant. The two arms of the putamen are not united 

 by a bony plate, as in all the other elongated-seeded plants of the Order, but the 

 nutrient vessels pass from the base of the drupe to the bottom of the sinus of the 

 curved seed, just as in Cocculus or Pachygone. 



A piece of stem several years old, and i inch in diameter, is firm and woody, not 

 shrinking in drying. Bark smooth, polished, scarcely furrowed. Fith one-fifth the 

 diameter of stem, veiy firm and ivoody, wholly formed of long tubular cylindrical 

 thick-walled cells, with square extremities placed end to end. Medullary rays about 

 forty, of very much radially elongated compressed mm'al cells. Bark a very thin 

 cellular layer. Wedges, of wood long, narrow, gradually broader outwards, of nume- 

 rous dotted pleurenchyma tubes and large vessels, whose walls are covered with innu- 

 merable transverse bars ; there ai-e also a few spiral vessels towards the axis. Liber- 

 bundle semilunar, placed in contact with the wood. 



6BNERA JDUBIjE TBIBUS, FBUCTU IGNOTO. 

 15. TINOMISCIUM, Miers. 



Mas. Sepala 9 ; 3 exteriora parva, ovata, acuta, bracteis 1-2 mini- 

 mis conformibus stipata ; 6 interiora conformia, exterioribus paullo 

 latiora. Petala 6, sepalis interioribus parum breviora, oblonga, mem- 

 ibranacea, margiuibus inflexis. Stamina 6 ; filamenta planiusoula ; an- 

 tJierm oblongas, adnatse, extrorse bilooulares. — Prutex scandens lactescens, 

 petiolis elongatis bad incrassatis et fiexuosu, pseudu-subarticulatis, foliis 

 basi trinerviis cceterum penninervis, floribus racemosis. 



There is nothing in the male flower of this plant to guide us as to its immediate 

 afiinity, for, though the technical character agrees with Tinospora, the appearance of 

 the flowers and the whole habit are very different. Mr. Miers has conjectured that 

 it belongs to his tribe Eeteroclinece,jmi. we have, at p. 179, described a fruit which 

 we think probably belongs to a nearly allied species. 



The wood of Tinomiscium is hard, and does not contract much in drying. A sec- 

 tion half an inch in diameter presents a broad pith, and twenty-five to thirty wood- 

 wedges, divided by moderately broad medullary rays. The general arrangement is as 

 in Perieampylus, but the liber-bundles evidently increase annually, and there are no 

 traces of periodic deposits of wood. 



1 . T. petiolare (Miers in Taylor's Annals, ser. 2. vii. 44) ; foliis 

 ovali-oblongis acumiuatis glabris, racemis elongatis fusco-tomentosis. — 

 Cocculus petiolaris, JFall. Cat. 4964 ! 



