CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
211 
under vague notions of its real characters, gave the preference 
to Clijpea, and included in it all the species of Stephania, The 
authors of the ‘ Flora Indica ’ and of the ‘ Genera Plantarum ’ 
have united the two genera, on the authority of Prof. A. Gray, 
who placed little dependence on the constancy of their relative 
distinctions as I had defined them : his doubts arose from the 
examination of a plant considered by him to be identical with 
Cocculus Forsteri, DC., which had been referred to Stephania 
it appeared to him that its floral parts were sometimes trimerous, 
at other times tetramerous, in the same specimen — an inference 
upon which I offered some remarks in speaking of Clypea 
(p. 204). In all the instances examined by me, which are ex- 
tremely numerous, I have found, without exception, that the 
floral parts in the two genera are constantly distinct in number. 
Stephania in its ^ flower has six sepals in two series, three 
smaller petals, and a 6-celled anther; while Clypea, as I have 
shown, has eight sepals in two series, four petals, and an 8- 
celled anther. In Stephania the ? flower has three sepals, three 
petals, and a putamen with a remarkable perforation in the 
middle of its disciform condyle ; while in Clypea it has four sepals, 
two petals, and a putamen with an imperforate condyle, as in 
Ileocarpus and Cissampelos. Many good characters also separate 
this genus from Homocnemia and Ileocarpus : although the latter 
has a similar number of sepals and petals, the imperforation of 
its condyle renders it distinct ; the former has four sepals and 
four petals in the ? flower, its fruit being unknown. Ignoring 
these well-marked distinctions, the authors of the ‘ Genera 
Plantarum^ amalgamate Clypea, Ileocatpus, and Homocnemia 
with Stephania, and in the four genera thus confounded together 
they recognize only three species, whereas I have here enume- 
rated, under well-defined characters, twenty-six species of Ste- 
phania, seven of Clypea, one of Ileocarpus, and one of Homocnemia, 
making in all thirty-five species. Much perplexity has arisen 
from the incomplete characters of the several species hitherto 
described by botanists, so that it has been difficult to reduce 
into consistent order many of the plants that have been referred 
to them ; and, to add to this confusion, most of the specimens 
now existing in herbaria appear to have been named at hazard ; 
no one seems to have taken the trouble to examine the structure 
of the flowers, in which, notwithstanding their minute size, 
good characters are found, corroborative of other features 
obtainable from the differences that exist in the leaves, petioles, 
and inflorescence. 
The species are found chiefly on the Indian continent and the 
islands of its great archipelago, their range extending eastward 
as far as China, Japan, and Australia, and westward to the limit 
2 E 2 
