260 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
of the petals, asserting that it is not even constant in each spe- 
cies; and thus, after their singular method, they agglomerated 
most of the species of Nephroica enumerated below into a single 
species of Cocculus. The principal reason they assign is not 
supported circumstantially ; for I have carefully examined scores, 
nay, hundreds of flowers in the genus, and have found their 
shape and proportion constant in each species. In every case 
the petals are far more elongated than in Cocculus, and are 
divided from their apex to near their middle into two extremely 
attenuated caudate points, usually inflected above, while at their 
base they have two short auricular lobes, which are involuted 
round the base of the stamens. The filaments are gradually 
thickened at the apex into a clavate f6rm, the anthers being 
globular, parallel, dorsally attached to the filament, with a very 
narrow connective between them ; they are therefore introrse, 
and each lobe bursts by a horizontal %uture. The female flower 
has sepals and petals like those of the male, and six effete sta- 
mens ; they have three or six free ovaries each, with a stigma dif- 
ferent from that of Cocculus. There is not much dissimilitude 
in the structure of the putamen and seed in these two genera. 
In adopting Loureiro’s generic name I have corrected a typo- 
graphical error, by reforming it into Nephroica, a name evidently 
derived from ve^po? {ren), el'/co) {similis sum), which expresses 
the reniform shape of its putamen : we thus avoid the incon- 
venience of forming three distinct syllables out of three terminal 
vowels. 
Nephroica, Lour. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 9, in ordine 
ternario alternatim disposita, gradatim majora. Petala 6, 
sepahs interioribus multo breviora, lineari-oblonga, imo utrin- 
que auiiculata, lobis involutis filamenta amplectentibus, apice 
in lacinias 2 angustissimas acutas ssepius paulo inflexas pro- 
funde fissis. Stamina 6, libera, petalis opposita, his subsequi- 
longa vel longiora; filamenta suberecta, apice sensim incras- 
sata; antherce subglobosse, sub-T-lobse, dorso affixae, 2-locu- 
lares, loculis connective angustissimo sejunctis, utrinque rima 
horizontali 2-valvatim dehiscentibus. Ovaria sterilia 3, punc- 
tiformia, centralia. — Fcem. Sepala et petala ut in masc. 
Stamina sterilia 6, petalis opposita ; filamenta filiformia, brevia, 
apice 2-punctata. Ovaria 6, rarissime pauciora, gibboso- 
oblonga, gynaecio 6-lobato imposita, 1-locularia, 1-ovulata, 
ovulo ad faciem interiorem afiixo. Stylus brevis, excentralis. 
Stigma elongatum, teres, reflexum, superne canaliculatum. 
Drupce 6, vel abortu pauciores, ovatae, gibbae, carnosae, paulo 
supra basin stylo persistente notatae; putamen reniformi- 
orbiculatum, subcompressum, 1-loculare, loculo fere annular! 
