252 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
dj'le is vertically divided by a complete septum, parallel to the 
two faces, into two hollow chambers, each having an external 
crescent-shaped aperture ; the seed is cyclical, flattened on its 
inner side, and consists of simple albumen enclosing a nearly 
annular embryo, with a narrow terete radicle half the length of 
two fleshy subfoliaceous incumbent cotyledons, which are twice 
its breadth. 
In Prof. Martins’s ‘ Flora Brasiliana,’ Dr. Eichler enumerates 
two species, neither of which belongs to the genus. The first is 
Cocculus filipendula, Mart., of which a drawing is given [1. c. 
fasc. xxxviii. tab. 42. fig. 4) ; this shows clearly that I was quite 
correct in considering it to be a species of Odontocarya (Contr. 
Bot. iii. 65). The second is Cocculus enneandi'us, Eichl., esta- 
blished upon a Peruvian plant from the collection of Ruiz and 
Pavon, of which the flower only is figured (/. c. tab. 42. fig. 5) ; 
this is considered by Dr. Eichler to be a variety of Cocculus 
Carolinus that has strayed into Peru, and which, under another 
soil and climate, has produced monstrous flowers. There appears 
no reason for this improbable supposition, as that species has 
never been seen beyond the limits of the United States. If it 
be a monstrous flower, it is far more likely to be an abnormal 
condition of some plant which we know to be growing in Peru 
or its vicinity. The inference appears to me certain, that the 
plant cannot belong to Cocculus, from which it differs in having 
an inner whorl of three stamens which stand alone, without 
petals, in addition to the ordinary number of six perfect stamens 
embraced by as many petals ; the anthers as they are described 
are very different from those of Cocculus, as are also the petals, 
whose involuted lobes are lateral, not basal as in that genus. 
Dr. Eichler gives no drawing of the plant ; but, from its de- 
scription, it appears very likely to belong to the South-American 
genus Odontocnrya ; indeed, in the form of its cordate, nearly 
3-lobed leaves, which are also membranaceous, it scarcely differs 
from the diagnosis I have given of Odontocarya hedercefolia 
(huj. vol. p. 64), a plant from Panama, which has a range as far 
eastward as northern Brazil, and is therefore not unlikely to ex- 
tend to the much shorter distance southward of Upper Peru, 
where it is only supposed that Ruiz’s plant was obtained; for 
no locality is given with the specimen. It is therefore reason- 
able to conclude that it is either an abnormal species of Odon- 
tocarya or that it belongs to a new genus. The former idea ap- 
pears more probable if we consider the inner whorl to be formed 
by three sterile ovaries, such as I found to exist occasionally in 
the ^ flowers of the Indian genus Hcematocarpus, and in those 
of Tiliacora, where they look somewhat like emasculated stamens : 
this supposition is strongly supported by Dr. Eichler’s drawing. 
