102 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
Frutices scandentes Asia tropica et insularum indigena; folia 
elliptica, sapius glaberrima, Z-nervia, breviter petiolata ; racemi 
(ucillares, petiolum aquantes, vel duplo longiores. 
1. Hypserpa cuspidata, nob. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. vii. 40; — 
Cocculus cuspidatus, Wall. Cat. ; — Limacia cuspidata, Hook. 
^ Th. FI. Ind. i. 189; — ramulis subteneribus, teretibus, stri- 
atis, subpubescentibus ; foliis ovato-oblongis vel oblongo- 
lanceolatis, imo rotundatis vel obtusis, apice attenuatis et 
mucronato-cuspidatis, canaliculatis, coriaceis, imo trinerviis, 
nervoque marginali revoluto, utrinque glabris, reticulatis, 
supra in venis sulcatis, subtus pallidioribus, nitidis, nervis 
prominulis subpuberulis ; petiolo brevi, tenui, pubescente; 
panicula ^ puberula, brevi, axillari, ramis inferioribus tri- 
floris, vel racemo simplici, paucifloro, petiolo subsequilongo ; 
sepalis 8—9 ; petalis 4, 5 aut 6 ; staminibus 7, 8 vel 9 : ra- 
cemo $ axillari, trifloro, petiolo aequilongo. — In Indise penin- 
sula et Ceylon : v. s. in herb. Soc. Linn. J', Sylhet (Wall. Cat. 
4960 ; in herb. Hook., Mergui (Griffith), Ceylon (Gardner, 
30; Thwaites, 1051 ; Walker); in herb. Mus. Brit., Assam 
(Griffiths, 571). 
This species is very variable in the size of its leaves, which 
are 3-4^ inches long, 1^-2^ inches broad, on a petiole f-f inch 
long. The ^ racemes are f-1 inch long. The flower consists 
of three minute external, bracteiform sepals, five to six inner 
larger submembranaceous sepals in a single imbricating series, 
generally five shorter fleshy petals, and seven or eight, rarely 
nine, stamens in the middle. The $ fructiferous raceme is only 
3 lines long, two of the flowers being sterile; a single drupe 
only is matured, about the size of a pea, which is thus supported 
on a short simple peduncle. 
2. Hypserpa nitida, nob. in Hook. Kew Journ. iii. 258 ; — Limacia 
cuspidata. Hook. ^ Th., in parte, 1. c. p. 190; — ramulis strio- 
latis, parce ferrugineo-tomentosis ; foliis ovatis, subacutis, 
acumine obtuso vix mucronato, utrinque nitidis, fuscis et 
glaberrimis, trinerviis, nervis venisque reticulatis, supra om- 
nino immersis, subtus prominentibus; petiolo tenui, apice 
crassiore, superne pubescente, inferne glabro ; racemis bre- 
vibus, axillaribus, simpliciter trifloris, floribus pedicellatis, 
vel in ramulis novellis foliis delapsis aut abortivis paniculam 
racemosam folio 2-3-plo longiorem efFormantibus ; racemis ? 
axillaribus, petiolo brevioribus, ssepius simpliciter trifloris; 
drupa globosa. — In Hong Kong, v. s. in herb. Benth. ^ Hook. 
fChampion). 
It is not easy to conceive a sufficient reason why this very 
