CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
131 
six of the other published species of the genus, belonging to the 
Old and'New World, as synonyms of C. Pareira, acknowledging 
only five old and two new species, all Brazilian ; but why he should 
have selected these five Brazilian cases only, in two of which he 
has mistaken their identity, and why he passed over others, which 
are equally remarkable for the dififerentia] characters they oppose 
to his type, it is very difficult to conceive. 1 am glad to have 
the opportunity of remarking that the plates in the work above 
mentioned, mostly from drawings by Dr. Eichler, are beautifully 
executed; his review of the family, and his observations on its 
general structure and the economic uses of its plants, are deser- 
ving of high commendation. 
It is worthy of remark that, with very few exceptions, each ge- 
nus of the Menispermacea is confined to a comparatively limited 
range ; and it is a singular coincidence that, out of fifty known 
genera, only three original ones, Cissampelos, Cocculus, and Meni- 
spermum, occur in both hemispheres. The area of distribution of 
each of the many species of Cissampelos here enumerated is 
very limited, so that they may be said to be nearly local — a cha- 
racter which almost universally prevails throughout the family. 
The species here collated have been divided into three groups, 
American, African, and Asian : these again are subdivided into 
peltate, subpeltate, and palate sections, according to the differ- 
ent modes of insertion of the petiole upon the blade of the leaf. 
This plan, though arbitrary, happens to agree with the local 
distribution of the species, and has been adopted solely with the 
view of affording facility to others in studying the species and 
in the more easy determination of the individuals. When the 
results here obtained have been examined and confirmed, it will 
be easy to arrange the species methodically into groups and 
sections marked by separate characters, which will tend greatly 
to abbreviate the respective diagnoses. 
The plants throughout the genus are dioecious, the sexes 
being always distinct in different plants, except in two or three in- 
stances where monoecious flowers occur: in one the sexes are found 
in distinct racemes in the same individual ; in another male and 
female flowers are seen in the same raceme: but, as they accord 
in the usual number of their floral parts, these exceptions have 
(like those in Tiliacora) been retained in the genus; on the 
other hand, where a different number and disposition of the floral 
parts occur which, from their constancy, cannot be attributed to 
metamorphism, the species have been excluded, in order to pre- 
serve the uniformity and universality of the characters of Cissam- 
pelos. Thus, following the example of Cijclea, Chjpea, Antizoma, 
&c., where this uniformity is disturbed I have formed the genus 
Dissopetalum, in which two petals are always present in the fe- 
s 2 
