100 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
dulis, glabris, nitidis, subflavescentibus ; foliis ovato-oblongis, 
obtusis, crasso-coriaceis, integerrimis, glabris, utrinque sub- 
nitidis, subtus costa prominente ; petiolo brevi, crasso ; ra- 
cemis ? brevibus, axillaribus; drupis ovatis, basi angustatis, 
pulposis, rugosis, nucis magnitudine, siccis fusco-nigrican- 
tibus. — In ins. Sanct. Thomasii (Richard). 
The above description quite conforms with the habit of Ane- 
lasma ; no other account is given, except that the leaves are like 
those of a Laurel, only larger. 
The Anelasma minutiflorum, Sagot, is Hyperbana minutifioray 
nob., Hyperbaena reticulata, var., Benth. (non nob.). 
18. Hypserpa, 
This genus consists of a distinct group of plants, natives of 
Asia and the islands of the Oriental archipelago, the type of 
which is the Cocculus cuspidatus of Wallich. It is distinguished 
from Cocculus by its cyclical slender embryo imbedded in simple 
albumen, in which respect it approaches Pericampylus ; but it 
differs from that genus and all others of the Leptogonece, except 
Limacia, in its cotyledons being accurabent (not incumbent). 
It is also notable for its unsymmetrical flowers; for few of 
its species agree in the number of sepals, petals, stamens, or 
ovaries — a very unusual occurrence in the order. The authors 
of the ‘ Flora Indica ’ and of the new ‘ Genera Plantarum ’ have 
refused to admit the validity of the genus, as they do not con- 
sider the imbrication of its inner sepals to be a character of any 
importance ; and therefore they unite it with the genus Limacia 
of Loureiro. In this hasty determination they have entirely 
overlooked other- circumstances which establish marked distinc- 
tions between the two genera. In all the species of Limacia the 
sepals are constantly thick and valvate in aestivation, while in 
every case in Hypserpa the sepals have broad, thin, membrana- 
ceous margins, which sometimes for half their breadth overlap 
each other in aestivation. In other families where the difference 
is so extremely salient as it is in these instances, it is allowed 
to be a good generic distinction ; and there is no reason for de- 
nying its validity in Hypserpa, especially as it is accompanied 
by other prominent points of divergence. In Limacia the sta- 
mens are equal in number to the petals, whose lateral lobes en- 
tirely embrace the filaments, which are affixed to their claws ; they 
are always in ternary series, and symmetrical, the numbers being 
constantly six in one group, and as regularly three in the other 
section ; the number of ovaries is constantly three. In Hypserpa 
