130 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
must not be forgotten that this preliminary labour is chiefly in- 
tended to collect the materials for future monographers of this 
difficult family. It is uot unlikely that I may have erred in 
some instances, especially where the loan of specimens to com- 
pare with others has been impossible ; the only plan within my 
reach has been to make careful tracings of every specimen in the 
different herbaria accessible to me, marking each feature, examin- 
ing the flowers, and preserving drawings of their analyses : by 
this method the elaboration of Cissampelos alone has demanded 
more than twelve months of continued investigation. In vindica- 
tion of those botanists who have renounced in utter despair a task 
like this, it is right to mention the hopeless confusion that exists 
in all hei’baria that I have seen, especially among Asiatic plants 
of this genus. Specimens of the same species are there referred 
to different names and numbers, or the same names and numbers 
are given to dissimilar plants; and different species, sometimes 
with plants of other genera, are fixed on the same sheet as being 
identical ; in short, an almost inextricable perplexity exists. In 
addition to this, the want of good typical specimens and the 
imperfect short diagnoses on record have rendered it difficult 
to recognize any plant with precision ; so that when a predis- 
position has existed to annihilate existing species, the oppor- 
tunity has been very favourable for that purpose. I confess that 
I have often been disheartened by this perplexity; and it has only 
been by renewed exertion and a large amount of patience that 
I have been able to arrive at the conclusions now brought 
together. 
In this issue, I regret to find myself at variance with botanists 
of the highest repute, whose opinions, from the extent of their 
labours and the amount of their knowledge, deservedly command 
universal respect ; but, after many years of study, I cannot re- 
nounce the strong belief that the very extreme views they have 
entertained, not only in regard to Cissampelos, but to other 
genera of the Menispermaceae, cannot hold ground against the 
body of evidence I have been able to bring together. 
It is to be deeply regretted that, in a work of such great im- 
portance as the ‘Flora Brasiliana^ of Prof, von Martius, Dr. 
Eichler, the erudite author of the monograph upon Brazilian 
Menispermacea, should have been so fascinated by the extreme 
views of the learned authors of the ‘Flora Indica’ and the ‘Genera 
Plantarum ^ as to have followed their example. I cannot believe 
that a botanist of such acknowledged merit would have adopted 
this course if he had carefully worked out his materials. In regard 
to Cissampelos, it will be seen that he has embodied all the erect 
shrubs, together with some climbing plants, amounting to fourteen 
Species, into C. ovalifolia, and has amalgamated no less than thirty- 
