PITTOSPORACE^. 2^ 



PITTOSPORACE/E. f.b.i. 15. 



A family of nine genera and ninety species chiefly 

 Australian, of which fifty belong to one genus PITTO- 

 SPORUM. 



PITTOSPORUM. F.B.I. 15 I. 



Sticky-seed. 



The name, PITTOSPORUM, or Sticky-seed, indicates 

 the chief characteristic of this genus — the yellow sticky 

 pulp in which the seeds are imbedded. Another useful 

 characteristic is the umbelled arrangement of the smaller 

 branches and the crowding of the leaves at their ends. 



Flowers in umbels or corymbs close down among 

 the young leaves, white or yellowish-green in colour. 

 Calyx small, greenish. Petals five, yellowish, oblong. 

 Stamens five, alternating with the petals. Ovary covered 

 with short stiff erect hairs, and ending in a short stiff 

 style ; incompletely two-celled. Fruit a small berry, 

 with short persistent style, and marked on the outside 

 with a vertical equator along which the rind splits open 

 and spreading out flat exposes the red or orange sticky 

 seeds. 



Species about 50 in the tropical and subtropical regions of 

 Australia, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands. 



The family is a comparatively small one of only lOO species, and chiefly 

 Australian. See map on page 24. 



Flowers on short, stout pedicels, umbelled at the ends of 

 the twigs. Common sticky-seed ... P. tetraspermum. 



Flowers on slender pedicels in racemes from among the 

 uppermost leaves, forming a loose corymb . . P. nilghirense. 



Pittosporum tetraspermum Wight and Aniott ; Herb, 

 Wight No. 142 ! ; F.B.I, i 198, I 3 ; Cherry Orange, or 

 Common Yellow Sticky-seed. A small tree with thick 



