Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Fenmsula. 95 



reaching the apex of the cavity). <S^;/Ze simple or 0, rarely divided; 

 stigma 1 rarely 2, entire or lobed ; ovules 1-5, pendulous from tlie apex 

 of a minute free central placenta, or from the side or apex of the ovarian 

 cavity ; funicle (or placenta ?) often dilated into a thickened process 

 above the ovule. Fruit drupaceous or dry, indehiscent, 1- rarely 2-cell- 

 ed, 1- rarely 2-seeded, free, or more or less adnate to the calyx-tube and 

 disk. Seed pendulous ; albumen fleshy, entire or lobed, rarely ; radicle 

 superior; cotyledons \eQ,ij, Q.&,t ov io\deA, rarely fleshy. — Distrtb. Genera 

 about 45, species about 220, widely distributed through the Tropics of 

 both hemispheres. 



The Olacinese are rather an assemblage of plants than a Natural Order. The 

 solitary character which is common to all the species included under the title is 

 pendulous ovulation ; and even that character is obscured by the fact that, in a 

 number of the genera, the ovules are pendulous from the apex of a minute free 

 central'placenta which does not grow as the pistil developes, so that the seeds are 

 erect in the fruit and have the appearance of originating from a basal placenta. 

 In the remaining genera, both ovules and seeds are unmistakably pendulous from 

 the apex, or from near the apex, of the cavities of the ovary and fruit. The 

 majority of the genera have hypogynous stamens and superior fruit. But in Ery- 

 thropahim the stamens are perigynous and the fruit is inferior ; while Cansjera and 

 Lepionurus have their stamens perigynous in the flower, but the fruit (from the 

 development of the fertilized pistil in a downward direction) is most distinctly in- 

 ferior. In by far the greater majority of the species the stamens are free from 

 each other, or, at the most, are slightly coherent by their bases : but in Harmandia 

 the sessile anthers are attached near the mouth of a fleshy staminal tube like that 

 found in Meliaceie ; and this tube, in an anantherous condition, is found in the pistil- 

 late flowers. By far the greater number of the genera have both calyx and corolla ; 

 but in Cansjera and Lepionurus the perianth is single, and in Phytocrene and Miquelia 

 the organs which take the place of the outer whorl of the flower appear to be 

 rather bracts than a true calyx. In most of the genera the petals are really free 

 from each other ; for, although many of them cohere by their edges for a time, they 

 ultimately become separate ; while in a smaller number there is genuine cohesion 

 near their bases. In Harmandia however the corolla is gamopetalous and urceolate 

 at all times and its texture is fleshy. 



All the genera treated of below are woody except Cardiopteris which is her- 

 baceous, and which moreover has milky juice. And all the genera have alternate 

 leaves except Ctenolophon in which the leaves are opposite. The whole order ap- 

 pears to me to be in want of revision : and the study of the species described below 

 leads me to incline to the opinion that several of the sub-tribes would be better 

 treated as distinct natural orders ; while one {Opiliese) might be transferred to 

 Santalacex. 



Fruit drupaceous : Stigma 1. 



Ovules pendulous from the apex of a minute 

 axile placenta ; seed spuriously erect. 

 Dichlamyfleous, $ : fruit superior. 



Sub-Tribe I. — Olaceae. Stamens' aniso- 



583 



