140 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
9-11 -nerviis,adultis supra glabris vel sparse puberibus, subtus 
sericeo pubescentibus, margine ciliatis; petiolo limbo paulo 
breviore, imo subito rellexo : paniculis ^ supra-axillaribus, 
solitariis vel 3 fasciculatis, petiolum aequantibus vel bre- 
vioribus, bis dichotorne ramosis cum pedicello iii dichotomiis, 
ramis ramulisque filiformibus vel capillaribus, divaricatis, 
pubescentibus, ramulis ultimis spicatim pedicellatis ; lloribus 
minimis, congestis, bine subcorymbosis ; sepalis hispido-pi- 
losis : racemis ? folio longioribus, imbricatim bracteatls ; brac- 
teis spicatis, foliosis, suborbicularibus, subsessilibus ; pedi- 
cellis unidoris, intra bracteam 5-6 fasciculatis ; sepalo ovato, 
subunguiculato ; petalo subrotundo, illo dimidio breviorej 
drupis coccineis, subrotundis, compressis, pilosis.— In Antillis 
et America intertropicali ; v. s. in herb. DC. & ? , San 
Domingo (Poiteau); in herb. Lindl., San Vicente and Trinidad; 
in herb. Hook., inter multas alias, Panama (Seemann, 313), Ja- 
lapa, Campeche (Linden, 926), S. Vincent, c? & ? (Guilding), 
Mexico Orizaba (Brotero, 854) ; in herb. Mus. Brit., plurima 
e variis locis. 
In the time of Plumier and Linnaeus, the plants then known 
of Cissampelos were few, and divided into two species — C.Pareira, 
where the leaves were peltate, and C. Caapeba, where the petiole 
was inserted on the margin of the blade. Subsequently, in pro- 
portion as botanists began to pay more attention to the many 
characteristic features of plants, the number of species necessa- 
rily increased. In this manner the individual species enumerated 
in DeCandolle’s ‘Prodromus' (1824) were twenty-eight, which 
number has been more than doubled by subsequent botanists. 
Lately, as before mentioned, the authors of the ‘ Flora ludica,^ 
in their summary annihilation of species, have gone further than 
was done in the time of Linnseus ; for they make C. Caapeba iden- 
tical with C. Pareira, and drown in this type nearly all the spe- 
cies of the genus found in the various parts of the globe. I have 
already protested against this attempt, and will recur to the 
subject when we come to describe C. Caapeba. C. Pareira, as dis- 
tinguishable from a host of others, is sufficiently susceptible of 
specific determination ; and although variable in the size and 
shape of its leaves and in the development of its inflorescence, 
a wide limit has been assigned to these variations in the above 
diagnosis. In the extent of its range, this species appears con- 
fined to the West India Islands and the more torrid regions of 
the American continent which border upon the great western 
archipelago, where it seems abundant. Its leaves are generally 
1^-2^ inches long and of the same breadth, with a basal sinus 
1 or 2 lines deep, the petiole (l^-S inches long) being inserted 
2 or 3 lines within the margin of the sinus. The ^ panicles. 
