10 
T 1 1 A LAM I FLO R M. 
well as in most of the West India Islands. The fruit of 
scarcely any of the species is edible : in many, as in the Meni- 
spermum cocculus, (the cocculus indicus of the shops), it is 
acrid and inebriating-, and is employed for catching fish and 
birds, and for destroying worms and lice. 
I. ClSSAMPELOS. 
$ Sepals 4. Petals 0. Stamens monadetyhous, 
4 or 2. — ? Sepal 1, lateral. Petal 1, situated before 
the sepal. Ovary 1 : stigmata 3. Drupe oblique, 
reniform : albumen 0 : embryo long, terete, periphe- 
ral ; radicle superior, situated at the base of the stig- 
mata . — De Cancl. 
Climbing shrubs. — Name, from y.iceo; ivy , and utizf/.og the 
vine. 
1. Cissampelos Pareira. Pareira-brava , or T^elvet 
leaf. 
Leaves subpeltate subcordate ovato-orbiculate pu- 
bescent above albido-villous beneath, ? racemes usu- 
ally longer than the leaves, berries hispidulous. 
Sivartz, Ohs. 380. t. 10. f. 5 . — De Cand. Syst. I. 533. 
HAB. Common in the mountains, on fences and in thickets. 
FL. February — July. 
Twining, filiform, branched, terete, spirally striated, villous. 
Leaves alternate, petiolate, suborbiculate, varying from ob- 
tusely-ovate to reniform, subcordate, rounded or emarginate at 
the apex, mucronate ; when young pubescent above, and albido- 
villous beneath ; when old subglabrous above and pubescent 
beneath ; nerved, reticulato-venose : petiole shorter than the 
leaf, terete, subtomentose. — $ Sepals 4, obovato-spathulate, ob- 
tuse, conca\ r e, externally hairy. Nectary concave, orbiculate, 
entire. Filament 1, in the centre of the nectary, erect, very 
short : anthers 5, united into a capitate body, excavated in the 
centre, opening externally along the margin by 4 horizontal 
slits. — $ Racemes at the ends of the branches, or axillary, longer 
than the leaves : bracteas leafy, gi^lually diminishing in size to 
the end of the raceme, shortly petiolate, suborbiculate, arista- 
to-mucronate, pubescent, with about 5 minute shortly pedicelled 
flowers within each. Sepal solitary, unilateral, spathulate, 
hirsute. Petal solitary, placed before and but half the length 
of the sepal, truncated, hypogynous. Ovary ovate, villous : 
stigmata 3. Berry globose, slightly compressed, of an orange- 
red colour, hispidulous. 
