151 



Bab. Prov. Musashi: Shibuya {1\ Makino\ Apr. 27, 1891), Bot. 

 Gard. Koishikawa, cult. (Herb. ! Sc. Coll. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, May 23, 1881, 

 April 30, 1883); Prov. Tosa : Sakawa, cult. (T. Malcinol May, 25, 1887, 

 May 17, 1892). 



Var. ibukiense Makino 1. c. p. 229. 



In volucral- bracts 4, small. Flower small, 2-4-fasciculate within the 

 in volucral- bracts. 



Icon. Iinuma's Somoku-Dzusetsu VI. fol. 5 recto. 



Dioscorea Tokoro Makino in Bot. Mag., Tokyo, III. 1889, p. 112; Id. 

 Illustr. SI Jap. I. n. 4, 1889, p. 1, tab. XXIV. et n. 7, 1891, p. 4. 



Rhizome subterranean, repent, solid, thick, branching, rooting. Stem 

 voluble, sinistrorse, terete, often slightly striate. Leaves alternate, petiolate, 

 rounded-ovate, reniform-ovate, or often ovate in the superior ones, subauriculato- 

 cordate at the base with a deep or widely opened sinus and rounded lobes, 

 rather abruptly acuminate with a very tapering point, entire or very scarcely 

 lobate- waved, firmly herbaceous, but membranaceous when dried, glabrous, 

 green and shining obove, paler beneath, 4^-19 cm. long, 3-16 cm. broad ; 

 main-nerves 7-9, radiating from the ba^e, prominent beneath, the lateral 

 ones curved, the outermost one with a branch outwards ; transverse veinlets 

 numerous ; petiole slender, shorter than the blade, glabrous, shallowly 

 canaliculate in front, slightly enlarged and purple at both ends. 4: Raceme 

 angustate, ascending, but then often pendulous by its weight, attaining about 

 50 cm. in length, solitary to a few in the leaf-axils, simple or divaricately 

 few-branched, or sometimes paniculate ; rachis slender, triquetrous, glabrous, 

 green ; bract minute, subulate, very sharply tapering, shorter than the 

 pedicel ; bracteoles smaller than the bract, subulate. Flower 4-4J mm. 

 across, pedicellate, 2-many-fascicuiate in subscorpioid manner with an ex- 

 tremely short peduncle, the fascicles laxly or more or less densely disposed 

 on the rachis ; pedicel shorter than the diameter of flowers, triquetrous. 

 Flower-bud obovoid, slightly flattened at the top. Perianth 6-parted, 

 patent, light-green, uninerved, glabrous, herbaceous, more or less thickish ; 

 the outer lobes oblong-lanceolate, obtuse ; the inner lobes very slightly longer 

 than the outer ones, oblong-spathulate, rounded at the apex. Stamens 6, 

 much shorter than the perianth, erect, but curved outwards above ; filament 

 narrow, glabrous, light-green ; anther minute, with whitish pollen ; the 

 oppositisepalous ones broadly orbicular, auriculate at the base, the cells placed 

 around the short connective and faced laterally ; the oppositipetalous ones 



