472 XXXVIIl. SAPINDACEiE, 



15. DODON^A, Linn. 



u 



(Eaipleurosma, BarlL) 



Flowers polygamous or unisexual, often dioecious. Sepals 5 or sometimes 

 fewer, valvate in the bud. Petals none. Disk small or inconspicuous. Sta- 

 mens usually 8, sometimes fewer, rarely 10 ; iilaments very short, anthers 

 ovoid or linear-oblong. Ovary 3- or 4-, rarely 5- or 6-celled, with 2 ovules 

 in each cell ; style short or, in some flowers, very long, shortly lobed at the 



end. Capsule membranous or coriaceous, opening septicidally in as many 

 valves as cells, each valve with a dorsal angle often produced into a vertical 

 wing, and in falling off leaving the dissepiment attached to thepersistent axis, 

 or rarely the dissepiment splitting and remaining attached to the valves, thus 

 closing the carpels and leaving only the central filiform axis persistent. 

 Seeds 1 or 2, nearly globular or more frequently compressed, with a thickened 

 funicle, but not ariUate ; testa crustaceous; embiyo spirally curled.— Shrubs, 

 often tall, but scarcely tnily arborescent ; the young shoots usually viscid, 

 and often the whole plant. Leaves simple or pinnate, with small leaflets, 

 with or without a terminal odd one. Flowers terminal or axillary by the 

 abortion of the flowering branches, solitary, clustered, or in short racemes or 

 panicles. 



"With the exception of D. vlscosaj wHch is widely dispersed over almost all hot couutrins, 

 and possibly one distinct Sandwich Island species, one from S. Africa, and one or two from 

 Mexico, the Dodonceas are all endemic in Australia, and very difficult to distluguisli by 

 positive characters. The form of the wings of the capsule, which has hecu much relied on, 

 IS as variable as that of the leaves, and the species, which at first sight appear the most dis- 

 tinct, often pass one into the other by the most insensible gradations. Even the exceptional 

 dehiscence of the capside, in those species where the dissepiments are carried off with the 

 valves, appears sometimes to he not quite constant, and is at most a purely artificial cha- 

 racter separating species in all other respects very closely allied. Several species have in 

 some, occasionally in nearly all the female flowers, a remarkably long style, sometimes \ to 

 1 in., whilst other female flowers ou the same specimen, or on other specimens of the same 

 species, have no style at all, the stigma or stigmatic surface sessile on the ovary. 



Seuiks 1. Cyclbpterse.— Zt'^y^^ entire, toothed, or rarely lohed. Wings of Hie cap- 

 sule extending from the base to the stgle or nearhj so^ each carpel, including its wing^ 

 nearly orbicular or longer than hroad. 



Leaves flat, elliptical, oblong-lanceolate or spathulatc or, if linear, not 

 filiform, entire or obscurely sinuate, usually above 2 in. long, 

 rarely between 1 and 2 in. 

 Young branches verj' angular. Seeds smooth and shining. Leaf- 

 veins indistinct. 



Sepals minute. Anthers linear 1, 2). triquctra. 



Sepals 1 to 1| lines long, from half as long to as long as the 



anthers 2. i>. lanceolata. 



Young branches very angidar. Seeds opaque. Leaves long and 



narrow, often serrate 12. D. ji t arm ici folia. 



Young branches terete or slightly angular. Seeds opaque. 



Leaves oval-oblong, on a rather long petiole, rounded at the base 3. D. petiolaris. 

 Leaves narrowed into the petiole, the lateral veins more or less 

 conspicuous. 

 Leaves elliptical-oblong, lanceolate orspatbulate, rarely almost 



linear-cuaeate 4. D. viscosa. 



Leaves naiTow, linear-cuneate or long and linear . . . , 5. jD. attenuata. 



