42 



13. RHAMXACE.E. 14. SAPINDACE.E. 



bulh blackish, ovoid: loaves all radical, stalked, leaflets 

 nearly circular, ciliate, dotted, sometimes purplish below, 

 the middle one largest and wedgeshaped at base ; flowers 

 large, solitary, on peduncles as long as or rather longer 

 than the leaves, and with 2 small bracts below the middle ; 

 petals pink to purple in upper part, yellow in lower part 

 (var. nihra, Jacq.), 4 times as Icmg as the lanceolate sepals, 

 connected at base; long stamens tootlied. 



Pasture, Mount Lofty Range. -June-Oct. — South 

 Africa. 



Family 13.— RHAMNACE>E. 



1. Rhamnus, L. 



1, Rhamnus Alaternus, 



L. BticktlKirn. Glabrous shrub, 

 with spreading, thornless bran- 

 ches: leaves persistant, leathery, 

 alternate, oval-acute, with a 

 horny edge and short teeth ; 

 stipules small, deciduous: flowers 

 dioecious, greenish, in axillary 

 racemes on short pedicels with a 

 bracteole at base; calyx with o 

 deciduous lobes : petals none : 

 fruit a small black berry -like 

 drupe, globular or ovoid, con- 

 taining 3 bony, 1-seeded nutlets; 

 seed with an open furrow on the 

 back. 



A favourite hedge-plant, gone 

 wild on Black Hill, and near the 

 sea. — Fl. Aug. -Sept. ; fr. Dec- 

 Jan. Mediterranean regif)n. Rhamnus Alaternus. 



Family 14. SAPiNDACE/E. 



1. Melianthus, L. 



(Greek mrli, honey, and iniflms. floAver : the blossoms are 



sought I)y bees.) 



1. Melianthus comosus, Vahl. SuuaII, downy 

 shrub: leaves alternate, odd-pinnate, leaflets D-ll, oblong- 

 lanceolate, deeply and regularly toothed, green with minute 

 stellate hairs above, grey-tomentose beneath, axis winged 

 between the leaflets; stipiUes long, awlshapcd, free; flowers 

 drooping, in. spreading racemes; bracts oval-acuminate, 

 longer than the pedicel ; calyx greenish and pink, con- 

 spicuously pouched at base, the 2 upper segments broad- 

 oval with a dark-red spot at the base inside, the other 3 

 segments lanceolate, shorter: petals 4, with red, oblauceolate 

 lamiuas and hairy linear claws, which are connected at the 

 summit by a woolly growth; stamens 4, in pairs; ovary 

 downy, 4-ceiled, 4-lobed ; fruit a globular, membranous, 



