XLIT. SABIAOB.B. 271 



Petals 4-5, imbricate. Disk usually small, annular. Stamens 4-5 

 o[j|josite the petals, inserted at the base of or on the disk, free or coherent 

 with the petals, all perfect or 2 only perfect aud 3 -without anthers • 

 filaments clavate, flattened or subulate ; anthers didymous, the cells 

 separated by a thick connective and bursting transversely by a deciduous 

 cap. Ovary sessile, 2-3-celled, compressed or 2-3-lobed ; ovules 1-2 in 

 each cell ; styles 2-3, free or conuate or ; stigmas punctiform. Eipe 

 carpels 1-2, dry or fleshy, indehiscent. Seeds compressed or "'lobose 

 basilar ; hilum broad ; testa membranous or coriaceous ; albumen • 

 cotyledons ofteu contorted ; radicle deflexed. — Distrib, Tropical and 

 subtropical regions chiefly of the ]Sr. hemisphere ; genera 4 ; species 

 about 35. 



1. MELIOSMA, Blume. 



Trees or shrubs, usually pubescent. Leaves alternate, simple or 

 imparipinnate ; leaflets subopposite, the terminal one rarely wanting. 

 Flowers small, hermaphrodite, in branched terminal, or terminal and 

 axillary panicles ; bracts caducous. Bracteoles and sepals 5-9, persistent 

 forming au uninterrupted whorl round the petals. Petals 5 : 3 lar^e 

 nearly orbicular, ^■alvate ; 2 smaller, interior, placed behind the fertile 

 stamens, either membranous and nearly free, or reduced to a bifid scale 

 adnate to the filament. Stamens 5 : 2 fertile, opposite the smaller 

 petals, the filaments short, flattened incurved, expanded at the top into 

 a cup which bears 2 globose cells that burst transversely, springiuo- back 

 elastically ; 3 deformed, broad, opposite the larger petals, 2-fid, with 2 

 empty cells together forming a cup over the pistil. Disk cupular or 

 annular with 2-5 simple or dentate teeth. Ovary sessile, 2- (rarely 3-) 

 celled, contracted into a simple or 2-partite style ; ovules 2 in each 

 cell ; stigma simple. Drupe small, oblique, subglobose ; stone crusta- 

 cepus, 1-celled, with usually a basilar rounded projection over which the 

 seed is curved. Seeds globose ; testa membranous ; cotyledons con- 

 duplicate ; radicle incurved. — Distrib, Tropical Asia, Malaya, a few in 

 S. America ; species about 32. 



1. Meliosma Wightii, Planch, ex Brand. For. Fl. (1874) p. 116. 

 A small tree ; branches, petioles and panicles clothed with ferruginous 

 pubescence. Leaves 3^-7 by I5-2I in., coriaceous, oblong-elliptic or 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, usually entire, glabrous above except on 

 the nerves, prominently reticulately veined and more or less pubescent 

 beneath ; petioles about | in. long. Plowers small, in rigid pyramidal 

 rufous-hairy panicles. Sepals aud bracteoles about 7-9, all suborbicular 

 ciliate, the outer ones pubescent outside. Petals membranous, the 

 3 larger ones rounded, obtuse, the 2 smaller bifid. Ovary flask-shaped, 

 glabrous. Drupes ^-5 in. in diam., nearly globular, supported on the 

 persistent sepals. Pi. B. I. v. 2, p. 4 ; Trim. PI. Ceyl. v. 1, p. 314- 

 Talb. Trees, Bomb. p. 60. Millingtonia pungens, Wight, Icon 

 t. 964. 



Konkan: DalzeW. 



I have seen only one specimen from Bombay which was collected by Dalzell. The 

 plant appears to be tolerably cjmmon on the Nilgherries. — Distkib. India (W. 

 Peninsula) ; Ceylon. 



