26 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Menispemece. 
Shrubs or suffruticose plants of climbing habit, of limpid rarely milky juice, of 
tonic, emetic, narcotic or diuretic properties, dispersed rather copiously over tropical 
Asia and America, occurring less frequently in Africa, rarely in some parts of both 
the warm temperate zones, scantily distributed over eastern and northern Australia, 
not yet found in the southern and western part of the Australian continent, nor in 
Tasmania, nor in New Zealand, nor in Europe. Their leaves alternate, broad, not 
imfr equently peltate, always pointed, entire, rarely -with a few acute teeth or lobes, 
without glandular dots, very rarely of different shape in the male and female plant. 
Stipules none. Elowers minute, racemose, cymose or paniculate. Sepals and petals 
often in a ternary or quaternary very seldom in a quinary arrangement. Staniinoclia 
present in the female flower or wanting. Drupes small, ovate, roundish, rarely 
oblong-cylindrical.— (Hand. Syst. i. 507; St. Hilaire, Flor. Braz. mer. i. 59; TorreySf 
Gray, Flor. of North America, i. 46; %tiers, in Annal. Nat. Hist. sec. ser. vii. 33; 
Lindl. Veg. King. ed. iii. 307. 
The members of this order are forest plants, but one species of Cocculus extends 
to the desert of the interior of NAV. and N. Australia. Since the roots of some 
Brazilian plants of this order are praised as antidotes against snake-bites, it would 
be desirable that experiments should be instituted on the perhaps similar effects of 
those of the Australian species. 
The species hitherto observed indigenous to the Australian continent are few in 
number, one is referable to Stephania (St. hernandiifolia, Walp.), the others, except 
the new genus here enunciated, are genuine Cocculi. 
Tribe PLATYGONE/E, Miers, in Lindl. Veg. Kingdom, ed. iii. 309. 
./Estivation of sepals imbricate. Stamens united into a central column or free. 
Embryo nearly of horseshoe form. Cotyledons elongated, flat, incumbent, surrounded 
by a scanty albumen. 
SAECOPETALUM. 
F. M. 
Flowers dioecious. Sepals 2—5, membranous, free, the outer ones the smallest. Petals 3-5, 
longer than the calyx, thick-fleshy, unequal, free, ovate, roundish, obcordate or renate. Male flowers: 
Stamens 2—3. Filaments below the free summit connate. Anthers adnate, oblique-vertical, extrorse, 
two-celled, opening with longitudinal fissures. Female flowers : Ovaries 3-6. Stigma reflexed, deeply 
bifid, rarely three-cleft. Staminodia few, very minute or wanting. Carpels 1—4, lenticular, one-celled, 
tapering into a cuneate base, on each side with an orbicular impression. Pericarp coriaceous. Endo- 
carp cartilaginous, dotted along its broad back 'with minute tubercles. Embryo almost hippocrepical. 
A gigantic climber, with heart-shaped, smooth, entire, rarely few-toothed, on both sides shining 
leaves, with lateral or axillary, fasciculate or solitary, simple or partially divided, minutely braeteate 
racemes, with unibracteolate pedicels subtile glandulous-downy, with small calyces and livid turgid 
petals. 
