346 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
oblong, diminishing gradually into an elongated style, very 
pilose, all the styles connivent in the centre, as in Pleogyne. 
Finally the pedicels coalesce into a rounded tumescent mass 
covered with a number of hairy drupes, about the size of a pea, 
which are almost globular, straighter on the ventral side, with 
the remains of the style somewhat below the summit, and the 
point of their attachment on the same side above the base; the 
putamen is reniformly globose, thin and testaceous in texture, 
marked on the dorsal side by three slight carinal ridges, and by 
a small sinus in the middle of the ventral side : the condyle is 
small, and intrudes a short way into the cell at the point of the 
sinus, and there the integument of the seed is attached to it. 
The seed, which nearly fills the space of the cell, is exalbumi- 
nous, and is corrugated over its surface, into the shallow clefts 
of which the integument is insinuated. Mr. Bentham states 
that the embryo consists of two cotyledons so closely conferru- 
minated together that the radicle is not distinguishable : on a 
slight examination it certainly bears this appearance; but if it 
be kept soaked in water a sufficient length of time, the seed 
swells to its full size, all the corrugations become obliterated, 
and the real structure becomes very apparent : the radicle is 
now seen to be of extraordinary dimensions, being half the size 
of the whole embryo; it is solid, fleshy, conical, somewhat 
attenuated at its extremity, where it is contracted into a small 
point which is suddenly inflected and directed towards the place 
of the persistent style, thus assuming the appearance of a small 
inflected radicle : the cotyledons, which occupy the lower moiety 
of the seed, are not at all agglutinated together ; they are semi- 
oval in their transverse section. Innately curved, with their ex- 
tremity turned upwards, so as nearly to touch the bottom of the 
radicle, thus leaving a cleft between them, where the integu- 
ment is attached to the intruding condyle. This form of em- 
bryo is quite unique in the Menispermacea. 
Triclisia, Benth. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 12-18, in or- 
dine ternario disposita, plerumque alternatim imbricata, ex- 
terne gradatim minora, carnosula, orbiculari-acuta, extus 
pilosa, 3 interiora sestivatione valvata, reliquis aut vix majora, 
suborbicularia et concava, vel 3-plo longiora, cuneato-oblonga 
et subacuta. Petala rarius nulla, aut 3 vel ssepius 6, stamini- 
bus opposita, iis multoties breviora, squamiformia, carnosula, 
cuneato-oblonga vel orbiculata. Stamina 3 aut ssepius 6, 
libera, longitudine sepalorum, subbiseriata, alternatim paulo 
minora; flamenta intus sulcata, sursum gradatim valde in- 
crassata, erecta vel arcuatim incurva, super androecium paulo 
elevatum fasciculo pilorum staminum longitudine munitum 
