NAT. ORDER.— 'MENISPERMACE^. 
83 
cea. The root is perennial, composed of a number of fasciculated, 
fusiform, somewhat branched, fleshy, curved, and descending tuheis, 
from one to three inches in thickness, clothed with a thin, brown 
epidermis, marked towards the upper part especially, with trans- 
verse warts ; internally they consist of a deep yellow, scentless, 
very bitter flesh, filled with numerous parallel, longitudinal fibres 
or vessels ; the stems are annual, herbaceous, one or two proceed- 
ing from the same root, about the thickness of the little finger, 
twining, simple in the male plant, branched in the female, rounded, 
green ; in the full-grown plant, below, thickly clothed with succu- 
lent, longitudinal hairs, which are tipped with a gland ; the leaves 
are alternate, the younger ones thin, pellucid, bright green, gen- 
erally three-lobed ; older ones remote, a span in breadth, nearly 
orbicular in their circumscription, deeply cordate, five to seven- 
lobed, the lobes entire, often deflexed, wavy on the surface and 
margin, dark green above, paler underneath, hairy on both sides, 
with prominent nerves, and supported on round, hairy footstalks, 
about as long as the leaves. 
In the 7nale plant, the racemes are axillary, solitary, or two to- 
gether, drooping, about as long as the petioles, compound, clothed 
with glandular hairs, and having at the base small deciduous brac- 
teas ; the calyx is smooth, consisting of six ovate, acute, nearly 
equal leaves, arranged in a double series ; the corolla is pale green, 
consisting of six oblong, free petals, with involute margins, and re- 
curved apices, arranged round 9, central, orbicular disk, or gland, 
in a single series ; the filaments are six, thick, shorter than the 
petals, with terminal, truncated, four-celled anthers ; the cells 
opening internally, and filled with linear, oblong grains of yellow 
fallen. In the female plant, the racemes are also axillary, solitary, 
simple, patent, shorter than those of the male ; the pedicels are 
furnished with minute, caducous bracteas ; the sepals, or leaves of 
the calyx, are six, in two series, three inferior, small, ovate, acute, 
subpatent, plain, glabrous ; the petals are six, rarely eight, green, 
