CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
377 
] -3-florisj floribus brevissirae pedicellatis. — In India orien- 
tali (?) : V. s. in herb. Hook, ex museo Soc. Ind. orient, (herb. 
Helford). 
The branchlets are 1-2 lines thiek, the axils 1-1 inch apart ; 
the leaves are 3-3f inches long, lf-2^ inches broad, on a pe- 
tiole 5-7 lines long. On the same sheet a separate leaf is glued, 
which hardly seems to belong to the specimen : it is lanceolate, 
acute at both ends, 3f inch long, nearly 1^ inch broad, on a pe- 
tiole 8 lines long ; it is 3-nerved at base. The twin racemose 
panicles growing out of the leafless axils of the old branch have 
a slender rachis 2^-3| inches long, with bracteoles 2 lines apai-t, 
from which one or moi’e (generally two) branches spring, which 
are 2-3 lines long, each bearing three flowers on extremely 
short pedicels ; the flowers are less than half a line in diameter 
in bud. 
60. Desmonema. 
This genus is proposed for a plant from Natal, with cordate, 
deltoidly orbicular, submembranaceous, glabrous, 5 -nerved 
leaves, the nerves branching externally, the petiole being long 
and slender. It has an axillary inflorescence, with a somewhat 
slender rachis as long as, or longer than, the leaves, the whole 
plant so much resembling a species of Tinospora that it might 
easily be mistaken for one. The inflorescence is a simple ra- 
ceme, its rachis being provided at short intervals with a subu- 
late bracteole half the length of the 1 -flowered pedicel which 
emanates from the same point; the flower has ^ix sepals, which 
are ovate, subacute, the three outer being alternate with and 
half the length of the three interior ; six petals in two series, 
the outer ones suhcuneately ovate, three-quarters of the length 
of the inner sepals, plane, the three inner ones a trifle shorter, 
linear, one-third their breadth, fuscous, subfleshy, longitudinally 
canaliculated ; three monadelphous stamens as long as the outer 
petals, the filaments being united for three-quarters of their 
length into a central column, the upper extremities being free, 
nearly erect, supporting as many subglobular anthers, which 
are broader than they, 2-celled, the oval cells collateral, without 
intervening connective, each cell opening bivalvately by a some- 
what lateral and subextrorse longitudinal furrow. Desmonema, 
in the feature of its three monadelphous stamens, resembles 
Rhaptonema, Srjrrhonema, Detandra, and Sarcopetalum. It dif- 
fers from the first in its subextrorse anthers, in the number and 
shape of its sepals, the kind of its inflorescence, the form and 
venation of its leaves, and its very dissimilar habit. Syrrhonema 
VOL. III. 3 c 
