N. O. ODODBBITAOE.®, 
579 
Stems often as thick as a man’s arm, marked with parallel rows 
of irregular, small warts on either side of each fissure, noduled 
and pointed, each joint £1-2 or 3in. distant ; giving off leaves 
on branches at joints only.' Outer bark light-grey or brown, 
warts corky, peeling off easily in regular bits, often presenting 
the appearance of crocodile stem. Mesophloem deep green. 
Tendrils 3, or 2-fid, minutely spiral. Leaves 4-8in. long, 2-6in. 
broad, 3-5 or even 7-lobed, palmate, tnembranous, bright green ; 
lobes acute, more or less dentate-serrate, glabrous, often scab- 
rous with 1 or 2- small glandular discs above and on the nerves 
beneath ; base cordate ; nerves 3-5, petiole l-2in. long, winding 
or twisted, channelled, with several glands at apex, scabrous. 
Stipules single, small, axillary. Flowers white ; delicate, in the 
female, stout white in the male. Male flowers : — Racemes, 
drooping 6-9 in., axillary longer than the leaves, solitary, few- 
flowered. Peduncles sometimes paired, stout, 5-6in. long. 
Flowers over 2in. nearly sessile, distant, each' in the axil of 
a very large broadly wedge-shaped, glabrous or pubescent, 
lacerate persistent bract lin. or more long, often set with 
broad; flat - glands. Calyx-segments ovate;, tomentose, deeply 
toothed or serrated, leafy, 1-1 J in., bractlike petiole, rather longer 
than the Calyx-segments, lin., wedge shaped, with many and 
long filiform laciuise. Corolla 4in. diam., bypercrateriform, hav- 
ing the appearance of a parasol, with its fimbriae hanging down 
in beautiful tapers. Petals marked yellow at base, cuneate. Fila- 
ments triadelphous. Anthers syngenaeious, very anfractuous. 
Female flowers solitary, smaller and more delicately fimbria- 
ted than the male, axillary ; peduncle not so stout as in the male. 
Calyx-teeth of the female flower less marked. Calyx-tube short. 
Petals, according to some, nearly destitute of fimbriae. Corolla 
altogether much smaller than that of the male. Fruit 2-4in. 
diam., globose, smooth, of the size of an ordinary orange, with 
a blunt nipple, brilliant scarlet, crimson ; pericarp thick ; pulp 
greenish, seeds numerous, densely packed, each seed about £-fin. 
long, oblong, compressed, smooth, brownish-grey, obtuse- 
margined, containing a sweet oily kernel. 
Parts used : — The fruit and root. 
