CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
MeNISPERMACEjE. 
In 1851 (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vii. 33) an outline was given 
of the results of a careful examination of the Menispermacece, 
which I had completed three years previously : the object of 
that sketch was to call the attention of botanists to the subject, 
and to solicit the aid of better materials for the elucidation of 
some of the genera, which I had not been able to examine. 
During the long interval since elapsed, the addition to our 
knowledge on this subject has been small; and this is one reason 
why the idea of making a complete monograph of this little-known 
extensive family, as at first contemplated, has been renounced. 
But as the principal facts relating to this inquiry remain yet 
unpublished, it may be useful to give in succession some further 
details of my previous investigations ; and with this view I now 
proceed to offer some prefatory remarks on the general structure 
of the order. 
The MenispermacecE are generally marked by an external 
aspect by which, even in herbaria, they are instantly recognized. 
With rare exceptions, they are all scandent plants, with twining 
stems, which are often of immense length, presenting a wood of 
considerable toughness : this has a coarse porous structure formed 
of radiating segments connected together by walls of dense 
ligneous tissue, thus bearing some analogy to the LardizabalacecE, 
Nepenthacea, Aristolochiacea, PiperacecE. &c. On this aecount, 
many years ago. Professor Bindley separated these families from 
VOL. III. B 
