12 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
The embryo partakes of the cyclical form of the cell, is slender, 
elongated, and terete, with incumbent cotyledons (not accum- 
bent as in Tribe 2), equal in thickness and length to the 
terete radicle, the whole being imbedded in the middle of simple 
albumen ; the radicle at the extremity of the upper horn points 
to the style. The sepals are imbricated in aestivation. In one 
section of the tribe [Cissampelidce) the number of floral parts is 
greatly reduced in the female flowers. 
Tribe 6. Platygone^e. The style here also is near the base of 
the fruit. The putamen either resembles that of the Tiliacorect 
in shape, divided by a septiform condyle, having a hippocrepi- 
form cell, or the condyle is subglobular and often 2-camerate, 
variously perforated, to the edge of which the integuments are 
attached, as in the two last tribes, the cell being in this case 
cyclical. The seed is either 2-crural or cyclical ; the embryo is 
imbedded in the middle of the albumen which fills the cell, 
partakes of its form, has large incumbent cotyledons, as in the 
Leptogonece (not accumbent) ; these are flattened and foliaceous, 
twice or three times the breadth of the more slender terete 
radicle, and always from two to six times its length ; the radicle 
in the upper horn points to the style. This is a very natural 
and well-marked division, and ought on no account to be con- 
founded with the two former. 
Tribe 7. Pachygone^e. The style, as in the three former 
groups, is near the base of the fruit, or it is more removed from 
it. The putamen is generally coriaceous, with a septiform con- 
dyle, which is sometimes almost obsolete. Unlike all the other 
tribes, the embryo is here quite exalbuminous, so that it entirely 
fills the cavity of the hippocrepiform or reniform cell, the radicle 
being extremely short and small, pointing to the style, the coty- 
ledons being very large, extremely fleshy, cyclically curved and 
accumbent. These characters render it one of the most natural 
divisions of the family. 
The authors of the ‘ Flora Indica,’ in their arrangement of 
Asian Menispermacece (in 1855), were the first to adopt the 
principle of the above distribution ; but they made several ob- 
’ectionable alterations in it, losing sight of some of the more 
prominent and constant characters, and adopting others of less 
value. They divided the family in a somewhat different manner, 
some of their groups being extremely heterogeneous. Their 
first tribe {Cosciniea) offers no character different from my 
HeterocliniecB ; the latter was adopted by them as their second 
tribe, but they changed its name to Tinosporece without any 
advantage; the former designation certainly better expresses 
the very peculiar and most salient character of the group — that 
of their divaricated cotyledons imbedded in distinct cells of the 
