CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
205 
structure in Clypea is afforded by the structure of its $ flowers, 
which Dr. Gray does not appear to have seen : these have each 
four sepals, two petals, and one ovary, with two stigmata, each 
bifid *; while Siephania has three sepals, three petals, and an 
ovary with three or six stigmata. We have also a different 
development of the putamen in Clypea, where the hippocrepical 
ring that forms the seminal cell has externally upon each face a 
single series of centrifugal spines, which stand out heyond the 
flattened edge that forms the periphery of the cell ; whereas in 
Stephania there is a double series of tubercles on each side; 
moreover in Clypea the condyle is a plane or slightly concave 
entire disk, which is not perforated in the middle, the latter 
character being peculiar to Stephania. I have found these cha- 
racters constant in all the six species here enumerated ; so that 
we have sufficient evidence to maintain the right of Clypea to 
rank as a good and distinct genus. 
All the plants of Clypea have deeply peltate leaves, as in Ste- 
phania and Cissampelos. The inflorescence is dichotomously 
branched, or more frequently simply or repeatedly umbellate, as 
in Stephania-, but very often, as just stated, the ultimate rays 
and pedicels become confluent into a disciform tumescence at 
the summit of the umbel, on which the flowers are sessile and 
closely aggregated into a subglobular head — a circumstance 
which probably suggested the name of Clypea, as this aggluti- 
nation is very conspicuous in Blume’s typical species, C. acumi- 
natissima. When the plants and flowers are pubescent, the 
hairs are all articulated. 
Clypea, Blume. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 8, biseriata, spa- 
thulato-oblonga, apice rotundata vel truncata, lateribus inter- 
dum undulatis, ssepe pilis articulatis extus vestita, sestivatione 
subimbricata. Petala 4, cuneato-obovata, sepalis 4-plo vel 
dimidio breviora, iis opposita, carnosula, glaberrima. Stamen 
unicum, centrale; filamentum subbi’eve, erectum; anthera 
4-8-locellata, locellis circa connectivum jieltatum in annulum 
connexis, rimis totidem horizontalibus bivalvatim dehiscentibus 
et sfepe minime interruptis suturam continuam simulantibus. 
— Fa>m. Sepala 4, spathulato-oblonga, glabra. Petala 2, 
spathulato-oblonga, dimidio minora, glabra. Stamina nulla. 
* In the ? inflorescence of C. Forsteri, the flowers are agglutinated to- 
gether upon a fleshy mass, as in the J ; so that it is as necessary to 
analyze the whole capitulum as if it were a single flower. In this way I 
found in a single ? head fourteen ovaries and eighty-four floral scales, 
of which one-third were smaller and darker than the remaining more 
membranous two-thirds, which gives four sepals and two jjetals to each 
ovary. 
