74 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
15. Tiliacora. 
This genus was first proposed by Colebrook, in 1819, for the 
Menispermum polycarpon, Roxb. ; but, as he was unacquainted 
with its carpological features, the genus was not adopted by 
subsequent botanists. DeCandolle, in his ‘Prodromus^ (1824), 
did not recognize it; for he named the same plant Cocculus 
acuminatus •. from that time it continued unnoticed until 1851 
(Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vii. 36), when I first pointed out the 
identity of the two plants, and described the structure of the 
seed ; and this at once established the validity of Tiliacora. 
This genus, peculiar to Asia, is represented in the New World 
by Ahuta, Batschia, and Anelasma : all nearly correspond in 
their floral structure, and resemble one another in the remark- 
able development of the seed — features which entitle them to 
rank in a distinct tribe, the Tiliacorere. It is surprising that 
the authors of the ‘ Flora Indica’ and of the ‘ Genera Plantarum^ 
have refused to acknowledge the validity of this very natural 
group, and have placed these genera in the same tribe with 
Cocculus, thus mingling in confusion genera with a very rumi- 
nated albumen and a very slender embryo having incumbent coty- 
ledons as much attenuated as their very slender radicle, with 
other genera having a simple albumen and an embryo with 
accumbent, broad, foliaceous cotyledons — characters perfectly 
irreconcileable in any arrangement that lays claim to consistency. 
The flowers in this genus, though usually dioecious, are some- 
times polygamous ; they have nine or twelve sepals, in ternate 
series, the three internal ones being much larger, and valvate in 
aestivation ; they have six minute petals appearing like nectarial 
scales, and six stamens placed opposite to them, all inserted to- 
gether upon a short columnar receptacle, on which three puncti- 
form rudimentary ovaries are placed. In the numerous speci- 
mens of Tiliacora that I have seen, I have not yet found a female 
flower ; I have, however, met with two species in which they are 
polygamous : in one case there are six petals, only three stamens, 
and three ovaries of equal length, oblong, ventricose, 1-celled, 
with a single appended ovule, and terminated by a subulate 
style ; in the other case the flower has six petals, six stamens, 
four minute gibbously oval ovaries in the centre, with an obso- 
lete style, and these are 1-celled, with a regular ovule. Rox- 
burgh, who is the only authority, states that the female flower 
has sepals and petals similar to those of the male; but he men- 
tions no stamens : he adds that it has twelve ovaries in a single 
whorl, each terminated by a subulate style, thus agreeing with 
those I have described ; of these twelve ovaries as many as eight 
or ten often come to perfection, but sometimes four, or even 
