Melianthus.] MELIANTHEZ (Sond). 367 
teeth minute. Capsule papery or leathery, mostly 4-winged ; the car- 
pels 2-1 seeded. Seeds exarillate. Racemes bracteate. Flowers nod- 
ding. Odour of the bruised foliage foetid. 
I. MELIANTHUS. Tournef. 
Calyx laterally compressed, with or without a saccate gibbosity at 
base, and furnished within with a nectariferous gland. Petals 5, the 
anterior one abortive. Stamens 4, didynamous. £ndi. ee 6043. 
(Melianthus and Diplerisma, Pl.) 
Large, shrubby or suffruticose, disagreeably scented plants, takiven of South 
Africa and Nepaul. Leaves alternate, stipulate, imparipinnate ; leaflets unequal 
sided, toothed. Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes, sécreting honey in abun- 
dance, whence the generic name, from peat, honey, and av9os, a steide 
* Stipules concrete into one large, intra-axillary piece, nttuchad tothe lower part 
of the petiole. Calyx gibbous at base. Capsule papery, four-lobed at the apex. 
( Melianthus, Pl, 1. ¢.) 
1. M. major (Linn. Sp. p. 892) ; glaucous, glabrous ; the raceme 
sometimes downy ; leaves coarsely serrate. Zhunb. Fl. Cap. p. 489. 
Lam, Ill. t. 552. ‘DC. Prod. 1. p. 708. Bot. Reg. t. 45. Juss. Mem. 
Mus. xii. p. 28. n. 48. icon. E.d& Z.! 775. Planch. lc. p. 416. t. aa. 
Jig. 4-13. Pappe, Fl. Cap. Med. Prod. p. 6. 
Has. Generally, throughout the Colony. Aug.-Dec. (Herb. Sond., T.C.D.). 
Stem shrubby, flexuous, glabrous, several feet long, with a widely-creeping root. 
Leaves a foot long or longer, the upper cauline ones smaller. Stipules acuminate 
from a cordate base, several inches long. Petioles naked at base, with cuneate wings 
between the leafiets. Leaflets 9-15, aie underneath, many veined, 3-4 inches long, 
two inches wide, acutely and often doubly serrate, the teeth pointed. Racemes 
simple, densely flowered, a foot or more in length, glabrous or pubescent. Bracts 
ovate, acuminate, equalling the flower-stalks, shorter than the fruit-stalks. Flowers 
brown-red, inch long. Upper calyx-segments at base into a very short, 
_ obtuse calcar, rarel se Kare 2, and havi instead a very wide. Smet », and little. 
fale th the persistent ely calyx, deepl: pedir dves 
Se as Aria 
lobes opening y thei inereatures.” Seodetwo in each cll, black and shining 
** Sti; , subulate, lateral, Calyz not seorsiovpety diane at base. 
Capt ctv a each end sears te aloe (Diplerisma Pl. tc: 416.) 
2. M. comosus Vahl, Symb. iii. p. 86) ; leaflets lanceolate, serrate, 
villoso-pubescent a with stellate hairs, at length glabrate, albo-to- 
mentose underneath; stipules lanceolate-subulate; racemes nodding, 
the flowers alternate ; bracts cordate-acuminate ; upper calyx-segment 
lanceolate, acuminate ; ; petals oblong or spathulate, acute ; capsule mem- 
branous, canescent, oval, four-winged. Comme. rar. t. 4. M. minor, 
Houtt. Linn. PA. Syst. iv. p. 108, Bot. Mag. t. 301. Thunb. Cap. p. 
489. E. & Z,1 777. Diplerisma comosum, Pl. 1. ¢. p. 416. Tab. —_ 
16-19. D. minor, Pl. Jig. 20. (fruit). 
_ Has. Near Langvallei and the Karroo below Bokkeveld and elsewhere. ae 
berg. Banks of the Camtour’s River, Uit. ; in the Karroo, at Gauritz aes 
ee EB. & Z. Z ‘mountain near Graaf Reynet, , 
