MYOPORINEE (Rvlfe). 93 
small or nearly obsolete. Ovary superior, 2-celled or more or less 
perfectly 3-10-celled by the intrusion of septa between the ovules ; 
ovules when the ovary is 2-celled 2 in each cell and collateral or 4-8 in 
superposed pairs, when the ovary is many-celled solitary, anatropous, 
with a superior micropyle ; style simple, terminal, short or somewhat 
elongated, filiform; stigma terminal, small, entire or obscurely 
emarginate, rarely oblique. rut drupaceous, indehiseent ; exocarp 
fleshy, succulent or rarely dry; endocarp hard or thin, 2-celled or 
the cells as numerous as the seeds, rarely breaking up into pyrenes. 
Seeds 2-10, usually solitary, in cells arranged in one series round the 
axis, very rarely superposed (the upper ovules being generally 
abortive), pendulous, oblong; testa membranous or somewhat 
thickened ; albumen fleshy, slender or nearly absent; embryo 
straight or slightly curved; radicle terete, superior; cotyledons 
semiterete, slightly broader and shorter (rarely longer) than the 
radicle. 
Erect or diffuse herbs, shrubs or rarely trees, glabrous, tomentose, canescent, 
lepidote or pubescent. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, entire or rarely 
dentate, exstipulate. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, subsessile or 
pedicellate. Bracts small or absent. 
Distris.—Genera 6, and species about 80, mostly Australian, with a few _ 
Polynesian representatives; 1 in the Sandwich Islands, 1 in Mauritius, 2 
others in China and Japan, 1 in the West Indies, a somewhat doubtful one in 
Tropical Africa, and the two following in South Africa. 
Baillon (Hist. Pl. ix. 420) reduces Myoporinee to the rank of a tribe of Serophu- 
lariacee, but Wettstein (Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam, iv. 3B, 354) follows 
Bentham in regarding it as a distinet order, which is more in accordance with its 
characters, 
I. OFTIA, Adans. 
Culyz 5-partite; segments narrow, acuminate, not enlarging in 
fruit. Corolla-tube cylindrical, equal or slightly dilated at the 
villous throat; limb spreading, 5-lobed ; lobes obovate, subequal. 
Stamens 4, subequal, affixed to the middle of the tube, included ; 
filaments short; anthers oblong, affixed about the middle of the 
back; cells parallel, ultimately somewhat confluent at the apex. 
Ovary 2-celled; style included within the corolla-tube; stigma 
oblong, oblique, somewhat thickened; ovules 4-6 in each cell, 
superposed in pairs. Drupe small, globose, succulent; putamen 
1-2-celled. Seeds often solitary through abortion, oblong, somewhat 
curved ; testa somewhat thickened ; albumen fleshy, slender; embryo 
small, rather shorter than the albumen (Bocquillon). 
Villous or sometimes viscid-pubescent much-branched shrubs; leaves alternate, 
or the lower opposite or somewhat. verticillate, sessile, serrulate, often small; 
flowers white, sessile or shortly pedicelled in the upper axils, ebracteate. 
Distris. Species 2, endemic. 
Leaves ovate or broad, 4-4 in. long, nearly flat... «» (1) africana. 
Leaves lanceolate or narrow, }-1 in. long, with more or 
oe vos ... (2) revoluta, 
less revolute margin Bee oied 
