378 XXX. BUiisERACEiE. [Canaritm, 



orbicular, very obtuse, or rarely shortly acuminate, 2 to 4 in. long, glabrous, 

 coriaceous, with parallel pinnate veins, and smaller reticulations conspicuous 

 on both sides. Stipules linear-subulate, deciduous. Panicles raceme-like in 

 the upper axils, shorter than the leaves, the cymes shortly pedunculate along 

 the simple rhaehis. Bracts and bracteoles small, deciduous. Flowering 

 calyx 1 line long, tomeutose. Petals about 2 lines, glabrous. Stamens 6, 

 the filaments shortly united in a cup at the base. Drupes ellipsoid, the woody 

 nut nearly 1 in. long, smooth, usually l-celled, rarely with 2 cells and seeds. 

 Cotyledons much folded and crumpled. 



W. Australia. Careening Bay, N.W. coast, A. Cumnngham ; Port Essington, Arm- 

 strong ; islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, R, Brown^ Ileane, 



Queensland. Estuary of the Burdekin, Fitzalan. The species does not come very 



near to any other one known to me. 



Okdek XXXI. MELIACE^. 



Flowers regular, usually hermaphrodite. Calyx small, 4- or 5-lobed, or divided 

 into as many distinct sepals. Petals 4 or 5^ rarely more, or 3 only, free or adnate 

 to the staminal tube, imbricate or rarely valvate. Stamens as many, or more 

 frequently twice as many, as petals ; the filaments, in Mellacece proper, united 

 in a tube ; anthers sessile or shortly stipitate within, or at the summit of the 

 tube; in Cedrelece, filaments free. Disk various, often annular or tubuh»r, 

 free ^dthin the staminal tube. Ovary free, entire, 3- to 5-celled; style 

 simple; stigma thick, disk-shaped or pyramidal. Ovules in each cell 2, or 

 (in Carapa and the Cedreledj 4 or more, the raicropyle superior. Fruit a 

 capsule, berry, or rarely a drupe, indehiscent, or septicidally or loculicuhdly 

 dehiscent. Seeds 1, rarely 2, or in Cedrelece few in each (*ell, with a ventral 

 hilum; albumen fleshy or none, embryo flat or nearly so, radicle superior. — 

 Trees or shrubs, the wood often coloured and sometimes fragrant, the bark 

 rarely bitter. Leaves alternate or very rarely opposite, simple, or more fre- 

 quently pinnate, the petiole often continuing long to grow out and produce 

 fresh leaflets ; leaflets without dots, except in Fl'mdersia, Flowers paniculate, 

 often small. 



The Order is found abundantly in the tropical or warm regions of Asia and America, 

 more rarely in Africa, Of the 10 AustraUan genera, 3 are endemic, 3 are common to the 

 tropical regions both oi the New and the Old World, the remaining 4 are Asiatic, one of 

 them extending also into Africa, 



Mehacece proper are at once known among the allied Orders hy tteir staminal tube. 

 Cedrelece, with free stamens, are in that respect anomalous, and might technically be re- 

 ferred to some of the preceding Orders contaiuiag pinnate-leaved trees; but the habit, the 

 large diak-hke stigma, and some minor characters, have referred them with common consent 

 to Mehacece as a tril)e. Filndersia, however, with its pellucid-dotted leaves, is really as 

 nearly connected with Rniacea-ZautlioxylciB as with Meliacece, but retained among the 

 latter on account of Us fruit and seeds so nearly those of Oedrela. 



TuinK I. VLbW^^.— Stamens united in a tube. Ovules 2 vi each cell Seeds not 

 winged^ albuminous. 



Leaves simple. Petals very long and narrow. ^ . 1. Tuur^a. 



Leaves bipiunate ^ ' ' ' ' 2 ^liaiA. 



Tkibe II, Trichilieae.— iS/^/«^M^ united in a tube, Oiales 2, rarely 1, or {in Cai*apa) 

 more than 2 in each celL Seeds not winged, wlihoiU albumen. Leaves pinnate. 

 Disk tubular or cup-shaped, enclosing the ovary , 3. I)ysoxyi-on» 



