88 OLACINEJE. Orax. 
ORDER XXIX.—OLACINEJE. Mirb. 
Calyx small, of one piece, entire or toothed, often finally becoming 
large. Petals hypogynous, 3-6, distinct or adhering in pairs : æstiva- 
tion valvate. Stamens hypogynous or combined with the petals, (fer- 
tile) definite, 3-10, opposite to the petals when symmetrical, or all or 
partly alternate when not symmetrical, sometimes mixed with others 
that are sterile and opposite to the petals: filaments compressed: an- 
thers erect, bilocular, bursting longitudinally. Ovarium 1-3-4-celled : 
ovules 3-4, pendulous from the top of a central placenta, or from the 
apex of the cells: style simple: stigma 3-4-lobed. . Fruit drupaceous, 
indehiscent, often surrounded by the enlarged calyx, 1-celled, 1-seeded. 
Seed usually pendulous. Albumen copious, fleshy. Embryo with the - 
radicle next the hilum.—Leaves simple, alternate, exstipulate, some- 
times abortive. , 
The stamens in this order are normally twice as many as the petals, and are 
placed in pairs opposite to them, as in Ximenia and Heisteria : half of them are 
sometimes sterile, as in Pseudaleia, in which genus the petals adhere in pairs to the 
very top. The fertile and sterile do not alternate Kw , but by pairs. When the 
petals are combined, the fertile stamens are sometimes reduced in number as in Ola; 
single filaments bearing single anthers (not double filaments with 4-celled anthers, 
as might have been expected,) taking occasionally the place of two contiguous fer- 
` tile ones, assist to unite the corresponding petals to ether ; the broad filament be- 
ing applied partly along the margins of both: in O. Wightiana, we observe a 
recurrence to the normal or symmetrical state, there bein occasionally 4 fertile sta- 
mens in the flower, two of them belay placed as in Ps leia, one within the mar- 
gin of each of the two contiguous combined petals, nearly where a single one is found 
in the usual state of the species of Olax. 
I. OLAX. - Linn. ; Gertn. fr. 8. t. 201. 
Calyx entire, small whilst flowering. Petals 5, four united by pairs to the ` 
middle, and the fifth distinct ; or occasionally 6, and all united by pairs. 
Fertile stamens 3, occasionally 4 or 5 ; anthers ovate, versatile: sterile ones 
as many as the petals: both kinds combined with the petals to about half 
. their length. Ovarium 1-celled, with 3 pendulous ovules. Style elongated. 
Stigma 3-lobed. Fruit a dry 1-seeded drupe, contained within the free, en- 
larged, cup-shaped, dry calyx: nut crustaceous. Seed umbilicated, and 
slightly 3-lobed at the base. Embryo at the end of the albumen next the 
style: radiele superior—Trees or shrubs. Leaves quite entire. 
Brown (prod. fl. Nov. Holl. p. 357), and Ach. Richard (Dict. class. d'Hist. Nat-), 
attribute to this genus a cylindrical embryo in the axis of the albumen: we also find 
a cavity in the axis, but it seems to us filled with camphor, while the embryo is mi- 
nute in another apparently distinct and small cavitv: but the fruit before us is not 
uite ripe. Olax, such as we have described it, has all the stamens epipetalous : the 
ew Holland species, if De Candolle be correct, has one, at least, of the stamens 
hypogynous, and the peduncles 1-flowered; but if Spermaxyrum be kept a distinct 
m for them, it cannot contain O. nana, Wall.! L. n. 6783, which has a similar ha- 
t, and also 1-flowered peduncles, but has often 6 petals, and the epipetalous sta- 
mens and bifid sterile anthers of the other E. Indian species. 
t 313. O. Zeylanica (Linn.:) arborescent, erect : young branches acutely 
angled, glabrous, transversely rugulose: leaves glabrous, ovate-acumin : 
racemes axillary, few-flowered: pedicels short: sterile filaments with their - 
