Melicope.| RUTACEX. 95 
Fil. t. 68; Students’ Fl. 86. M. parvula, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. 
Inst. xx. (1887) 255, Astorganthus Huegelii, Hndl. Cat. Hort. 
Vindob. ii. 196. 
NortH Anp Soury Isnanps: Abundant from the North Cape to South- 
land, ascending to 2000 ft. September—November. 
The flowers are occasionally cleistogamic. (See a paper on the subject by 
Mr. G. M. Thomson, in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. 416.) 
Orper XV. MELIACEA. 
Trees or shrubs; wood often hard, coloured, odorous. Leaves 
alternate, usually pinnate, rarely simple, exstipulate. Flowers 
regular, hermaphrodite, seldom unisexual. Calyx 4-5-lobed or 
-partite, usually imbricate. Petals 4-5, rarely more or 3 only, 
free or adnate to the lower part of the staminal tube, contorted 
imbricate or valvate. Stamens 8-i0, seldom more or fewer; fila- 
ments united into a tube, rarely free; anthers generally sessile 
within the top of the tube. Disc within the staminal column, 
annular or tubular, free or connate with the ovary. Ovary generally 
free, 3-d-celled; style simple; ovules 2 in each cell, rarely more. 
Fruit usually a capsule, sometimes a berry, rarely drupaceous. 
Seeds often enclosed in an aril, with or without albumen. 
An order of about 37 genera and 300 species, almost wholly confined to the 
tropics, rare in temperate regions. Most of the species are more or less bitter 
and astringent. Some yield a valuable and durable timber, as the mahogany 
(Swietenia), satinwood (Chloroxylon), and the so-called Australian cedar (Cedrela 
australis). The single New Zealand species belongs to a genus widely dis- 
tributed in eastern tropical Asia. 
1. DYSOXYLUM, Blume. 
Large usually glabrous trees. zaves simple, alternate, pin- 
nate; leaflets entire. Flowers in lax axillary panicles. Calyx 
small, 4-5-toothed -lobed or -partite, imbricate. Petals 4-5, linear- 
oblong, spreading, valvate. Staminal tube cylindrical, dentate or 
erenulate at the mouth; anthers 8-10, included. Disc tubular, 
sheathing the ovary. Ovary 3-d-celled; ovules usually 2 in each 
cell. Capsule globose or pyriform, coriaceous, 1—5-celled, loculi- 
cidally 2-5-valved. Seeds with or without an aril, large, oblong, 
exalbuminous ; cotyledons very large. 
A considerable genus of large forest trees, best represented in tropical Asia 
and the Malay Archipelago, but with several species in Australia and the 
Pacific islands. The single New Zealand species is endemic. 
1. D. spectabile, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 41.—A handsome 
round-headed tree 25-50 ft. high; trunk 1-3 ft. in diam. Leaves 
unequally pinnate, glabrous, 9-18 in. long; leaflets 3-4 pairs, alter- 
nate, petioled, 3-7in., ovate-oblong or oblong-obovate, acute, 
oblique at the base, undulate. Panicles 6-18 in. long, pendulous, 
usually springing from the trunk or branches far below the leaves, 
