X'XV. MALPIGHIACEJ:. 285 



ing, the filaments usually united at the base; anthers 2-celled. Ovary usually 

 i^. 3-celled, or the 3 carpels distinct, Avith 1 ovule in each, ascending^ from a 



pendulous ventral funicle. ■ Styles distinct, or united, or one only developed, 

 with small terminal stig-mas. Fniit-cai-pels 3 or fewer, either united in a 

 berry, drupe, or hard capsule, or more frequently forming separate indehiscent 

 mits, or winged samaras. Seeds without albumen, tlie testa usually membranous 

 and double. Embryo straight or curved ; cotyledons thin or fleshy, often 

 unequal; radicle short, superior, — Trees, shrubs, or rarely undershrubs, fre- 

 quently climbing. Hairs usually closely appressed and fixed by the centre. 

 Leaves mostly opposite, with glands at the top of the petiole, and often on 

 the margin underneath. Stipules usually small, deciduous, or none. Flowers 

 usually yellow, red, or white, in racemes either simple and terminal, or col- 

 lected in corymbs or umbels, the pedicels articulate on the common peduncle. 



• A large tropical and subtropical Order, atundaut in S. Amenca, much less so in Africa 

 and Asia. The only two Australian species belong to small genera spread over the Eastern 

 Archipelago and S. Pacific islands. Both genera are exceptional as being deprived of the 

 calycine glands so general in the Order. 



Carpels with 1 vertical, large, oblong or incurved wing. Flowers in 



irregular corymbs. Styles 3 1. Ryssopterys. 



Carpels with several (7 or more) small linear, stellately spreading 

 ■wings. Flowers in simple racemes. Styles 1 or 2, unequal . . 2. Tristellateia. 



1. RYSSOPTERYS, Blumc. 



Calyx without glands. Petals scarcely clawed. Stamens all perfect, the 

 filaments thickened at the base ; anthers without appendages. Ovary 3-lobed, 

 3-celled, villous ; styles 3, slender, with capitate stigmas. Samaras 1 to 3, 

 expanded at the summit into a wing, of which the upper margin is thickened, 

 tuberculate on the sides below the wiug. Seed oblong, with a slightly curved 

 embryo. — Woody climbers. Leaves opposite. Inflorescence terminal or ap- 

 parently axillary from the reduction of the flowering branches, compound, 

 irregularly corymbose. Peduncles bracteate at the base, with 2 bracteoles at 

 the articulation of the pedicels. 



A small ^^enus, dispersed over the Eastern Arehipclago, one of the species exteudiag into 

 Australia. 



1^ R. timorensis, Blume ; A. Juss. Malpigh. 133. A tiOl climber, 

 tlie young slioots hoary- pubescent. Leaves on rather long petioles, broadly 

 cordate-ovate or orbicular, obtuse or ratlier acute, 3 to 5 in. long, somewhat 

 coriaceous, glabrous above when full grown, hoary-pubescent underneath, 

 with 1 or 2 prominent glands at the top of the petiole, those on the marg-in 

 of tlie leaf very small. Flowers on pedicels of 2 or 3 lines, in short racemes 

 arranged in irregular corymbs. Bracts and bracteoles very small. Pruit- 

 cai-pcls or samaras pubescent, the lateral tubercles very pronduent, the wing 

 broadly senucircular, about f in. long and 5 or G lines broad.— Deiess, Ic. 

 Sel. iii. t. 35. 



Queensland. Cape Cleveland, J. Cunmngham ; Titzroy river, Thozet. The speci- 

 mens are in fruit oiilv, but agree perfectly with those ^ve have in the same state from Timor. 

 Sonic other species from the Archipelago arc closely allied, but differ chiefly in the longer 

 fiTid uarrowcr win^; of the samaras. 



