CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
235 
rolla are tubular, with a four- or five-toothed border; in the 
latter the segments are deeper; so that the difference is only one 
of degree, and is consequently of specific rather than of generic 
value. A casual observer may be misled in regard to the num- 
ber of floral parts in the female flower ; for in examining a capi- 
tate head of flowers, a number of persistent scales, varying from 
four to twelve, may be seen sometimes surrounding an ovary; 
but these extra scales really belong to other abortive flowers 
congregated on the same receptacle. The learned botanists, in 
their work above mentioned (p. 200), describe the female flower 
of Cyclea as having two sepals laterally placed about a solitary 
ovary, without any petal ; but this does not correspond with my 
observations : in the very numerous flowers I have examined I 
have never yet found a sepal unaccompanied by a petal, which is 
of nearly equal size, seated upon its claw, the former being always 
recognizable by its external pubescence, while the latter is inva- 
riably more fleshy and perfectly glabrous. This fact is reduced to 
a certainty in C. peltata, where the inflorescence is more spread, 
each flower being supported by a pedicel of equal length, brac- 
teated at its ^ase ; we there find constantly a single sepal, with 
its corresponding petal, both placed on that side of the ovary 
which regards the axis of inflorescence. In C. Arnottii and 
in C. versicolor, where the ultimate ramifications of the racemes 
are extremely abbreviated, and on which two or more sessile 
flowers are closely aggregated, they are sometimes constituted 
as in the case last mentioned, but very often we see as many as 
three or four sepals with their corresponding petals around a 
single persistent ovary, where the other corresponding ovaries 
have disappeared : in such case there can be no doubt that this 
increased number of floral parts is due entirely to the decadence 
or abortion of the ovaries, which often fall out of a head of 
flowers while under examination. We may therefore consider 
that normally each female flower of Cyclea consists of one sepal, 
one petal, and one ovary, as in Cissampelos, with this difference, 
that in the former the sepal and petal are antical, while in the 
latter they are postical. The putamen of Cyclea is smaller than 
that of Stephania, and more globular ; its condyle is not disci- 
form, but is expanded into a large hollow chamber, convex ex- 
teriorly on both sides, around which the somewhat hippocrepical 
cell is circumscribed ; the embryo is like that of Cissampelos, 
with its cotyledons somewhat shorter. 
Cyclea, Arnott. — Flores dioici. Masc. Calyx gamosepalus, 
tubulosus ; tubus aut late campanulatus ore 4-5-dentatus, vel 
turbinatus et profundius in lacinias totidem oblongas fissus, 
sestivatione valvata. Corolla campanulata, calyce dimidio 
2h 2 
