233 
MENISPERMUM PALMATUM. 
Palmated Mcnlspermwn . * 
Class DlQ^XIA. — Orel. DODECANDRIA. 
ISat. Ord. Menispe^me^. 
Gen. Char.— Male. Cahjx two-leaved. Petals four or six 
exterior, eight interior Stamens sixteen. 
Female. Corolla similar to that of the male. 
Stamens eight, sterile. Germens two or three. Berries one- 
seeded. 
This species of Cocculus is a native of the eastern part of 
southern Africa ; it has been ascertained, that it grows naturally, 
and in great abundance inland, about fiftea» or twenty miles, in 
the thick forests about Oibo and Mosambique, on the Zanquebar 
coast of Africa. This discovery we owe to M. J. F. Fortin, a 
French gentleman, settled at Madras, who brought to that place, 
from Mosambique, in September 1805, an entire offset, (from 
the main root) of a larger size than usual, from which a plant 
was raised in Dr. Anderson's garden, at Madras; but the genus 
could not be determined for want of female flowers. From a 
drawing in the possession of the Linnaean Society, it has been ascer- 
tained to be of the natural order Menispermeae ; but, as it was a 
male plant only, the genus and species were undetermined until they 
were fixed by De Candolle. Dr. Berry drew up the following 
character of the male plant, but the female plant has not yet been 
described. t 
The root is perennial, ramose, and bears fusiform tubers ; the 
stems are annual, withering at the end of seven months; voluble, 
simple, round, hairy, and about the thickness of a goose-quill; the 
leaves are five-lobed, and five-nerved, with entire, acuminate lobes, 
and stand upon round hairy petioles, shorter than thle leaves ; the 
male flowers are in axillary, solitary, compound racemes, bearing 
* Fig. a. the root. h. A flower, Rreatly magnified, c. A braotea, il. A stameu, 
(both the last magnified.) 
t Asiatic Researches, vol. x. 
'2 K 
VOL. II. " ^ 
