Ryssopterys
(from ryssos, wrinkled, and pteri, a wing; alluding to the form of the wing of the fruit). ORD. Malpighiaceae. A genus comprising about half-a-dozen species of slender, twining, stove or greenhouse shrubs, natives of the Indian Archipelago and Australia. Flowers whitish; calyx five-parted; petals scarcely clawed; stamens ten, all perfect; inflorescence terminal or falsely axillary, corymbiform; pedicels thickened above. Samaras one to three, expanded into broad wings at the apex, which are laterally tubercled. Leaves opposite, or nearly so, entire, the margins gland-bearing beneath; petioles slender, biglandular at the apex; stipules rather large. P. microstema, the only species yet introduced, requires stove heat; it should be grown in a compost of fibry peat and sandy loam. Propagation may be effected by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in bottom heat. R. microstema (small-anthered). fl., petals three or four times longer than the calyx; anthers minute; inflorescence equaling, or slightly exceeding, the leaves. August. l. broadly ovate, 3in. to 5in. long, 2 1/4 in. to 3in. broad, somewhat cordate, mucronate, slightly sinuated on the margins, greyish-pubescent beneath. Java, 1820.