Meiia?^ MeliacecB. 243 



exserted \ in. beyond corolla, with 10 spreading, filiform teeth 

 at mouth, anth. almost sessile, erect, bluntly apiculate ; ov. 

 pyramidal, style long, hairy, stigma capitate ; capsule depressed- 

 globose, \ in. wide, 5-lobed, hairy ; seeds pyriform, narrowly 

 winged, smooth, brown. 



Low country in rocky places ; common, but not generally abundant in 

 its localities. Moon's station is Wellasse ; there are specimens from 

 him, 1819, in Mus. Brit. Fl. April, July, August; white. 



Endemic. 



An excellent bitter tonic, and used just as Chiretta {Ophelia Chiratci), 

 with which, indeed, it is often confounded here. 



Tiirrcea villosa, Benn. There is a specimen of this in Hermann's 

 Herbarium, but it is not given in Fl. Zeylanica. The plant has only been 

 certainly met with in a few places in S. India, but should be looked for in 

 Ceylon (see Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 155). 



2. MEZiIA, L. 



Trees; 1. bipinnate; fl. in panicles; cal. very deeply 5-cleft, 

 imbricate; pet. 5, imbricate; stam.-tube free, with 20 teeth in 

 pairs ; anth. 10, alternate with pairs of teeth {i.e., fil. bifid 

 with anth. between teeth); ov. 5-celled, with 2 superposed 

 ovules in each cell, stigma 5 -toothed ; fruit a drupe, stone 

 bony, 2-5-celled; seeds with very scanty external endosperm. 

 — Sp. 12; 4.m Fl. B. Ind. 



"Sd. dubia, Cav. Diss. vii. 364 (1789). Xiunu-inidella, S. Malai- 

 v^mpu, T. 



M. Asedarach, Moon Cat. 35 (non L.). M. co7nposita, Willd., Thw. 

 Enum. 59. C. P. 699. 



Fl. B. Ind. i. 545. Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 12 {M. composita). 



A very large tree, bark smooth, thin, dark purplish-brown, 

 young parts stellate-mealy; 1. crowded, very large, 1-3 ft. or 

 more, bi- or somewhat tripinnate, pinnae 3-6 pair, distant, 

 opposite or nearly so, Iflts. 2-5 pair in each pinna and a 

 terminal one, stalked, oval or ovate, slightly oblique at base, 

 acuminate, coarsely shallowly crenate, the lowest often again 

 pinnate, glabrous, rachis cylindrical, glabrous, dilated at base ; 

 fl. numerous, in corymbose panicles 4-8 in. long, peduncle 

 axillary, stellate-scurfy ; cal.-segm. lanceolate, acute, stellate- 

 mealy ; pet. linear-oblong, obtuse, reflexed, stellate-mealy 

 outside, pubescent within ; stam.-tube somewhat tapering, 

 hairy within, teeth spreading, filiform, anth. nearly sessile ;: 

 style long, stigma clavate, 5-toothed ; drupe ovoid, i-i| in., 

 smooth and shining, yellowish ; seeds solitar}^ in each cell, 

 pointed, smooth, brown. 



