366 MELIANTHE (Sond.) [Meliantha 
1. 8S. africana (R. Brown, 1. c.); Zygophyllum prostratum, Thunb. 
Cap. p. 543, S. prostrata, E. & Z.! 774. 
- Has. Interior provinces, Masson, Sandy ground at Heerelogement, Clanw., 2. 
& Z.! Sept. (Herb. Thunb., T.C.D., Sond.). : 
- Stem 1-2 feet long, knee-bent, as stick as a pigeon’s quill, terete, papilloso-sca- 
brid, as well as the leaves. Branches and branchlets divaricate. Internodes 3 
inch long in the stem, shorter in the branches and ramuli. Leaves petiolate, the 
petiole 1 line long, equalling the petiolulate leaflets. Peduncles longer than the 
leaves, Linch long, nodding. Calyx 3 lines long, the segments 1 line wide. Sta 
mens as long as the calyx or longer. Anthers versatile. Styles 5, rarely 6-7. Cap- 
sule broadly ovoid, 3 lines long, of 5, rarely 6-7 carpels: carpels obtuse and green 
at back. Seeds 2 lines long. ' 
OrpER XXXVI. MELIANTHEA, Planch. 
(By W. SonveEr.) 
(Planch. Trans, Linn. Soc. Vol. xx. p. 414. Melianthacee, Endl. 
Gen. Suppl. iv. p. 80. Zygophyllee spurie, alternifolie, DC. Prod. 
I.p. 707. Zygoph. Tribe 3, Melianthee, Harv. Gen. p. 48.) 
Flowers perfect (or sometimes polygamous ?), more or less irregular. 
Calyx 5 parted, the odd segment posterior, all quincuncially imbricate 
in estivation. Petals 4-5, alternate with the calyx-lobes, clawed, naked, 
or having on the claw minute fleshy tubercles, Stamens 4-5, al- 
ternate with the petals ; filaments thick; anthers fixed at the back 
above the base, 2-celled, cells adnate to a dorsal connective, introrse, 
slitting. Disc between the petals and stamens, either horse-shoe-shaped 
or imperfectly annular. Ovary 4-5-celled ; ovules 2~4 in each cell, 
two rows, affixed above the middie of the inner angle, horizontal oF 
ascending, or solitary and ascending from the base of the inner angle 
of the loculus. Style subulate, incrassated, with 4—5 stigmatic lobes 
or teeth. Capsule loculicidally 4-5-valved (the dehiscence, howevels 
not constantly along the dorsal suture of the carpel.) Seeds mostly soli- 
tary, with a crustaceous testa, and copious horny albumen. Radicle of 
the straight, axile embryo near the hilum, linear-clavate, longer than 
the linear-elliptical, plano-convex, face-to-face cotyledons. Pl. 1. ¢. 
_ _ Evergreen shrubs, with naked buds. Leaves alternate or sub-opposite, unequally 
pinnate ; the petiole often wi or margined between the leaflets. Stipules two 
often concrete in one intra- stipule, sometimes lateral and free. Racemes 
Tribe I. Ev-Meuianrurs, Planch, 
Flowers resupinate. Calyx large, conspicuously irregular, the seg- 
‘ts separate. Petals shorter than the calyx, evidently perigynous, 
e claws of the four uppermost (i.e., the two posterior and two lateral) 
went, and cohwring by means of their woolly covering, but not 
eted. Filaments of the two (strictly lateral, but seemingly 
is, together with the rudiment of the abortive or ob- 
n conerete at base. Ovary 4-celled, the cells 
