180 BOTANY. 



of central America, and probably of Florida. Most of the mahogany wood 

 of commerce comes from the bay of Honduras, and is brought in logs. One 

 of the largest logs ever exported was seventeen feet long, fifty-seven inches 

 broad, and sixty-four inches thick, weighing 30,0001bs. 



Swietenia mahogoni, Mahogany tree {2)1. 67, fig. T) ; «, a flowering 

 branch ; J, corolla with staminal tube ; <?, the latter expanded ; <^, anther ; ^, pis- 

 til ; y, cross-section of ovary ; f/, ca}>8ule ; /«, ditto opened ; ■e!, a winged seed. 



OitDER 177. Meliack^, the IMelia Family. Sepals lour to five, more or 

 less united, with an imbricated {estivation. Petals four to five, hypogynous, 

 sometimes cohering at the base, with a valvate or imbricated aestivation. 

 Stamens equal in number to the petals, or two, three, or four times as many ; 

 filaments combined in a long tube ; anthers sessile within the orifice of the 

 tube. Disk often large and cup-shaped. Ovary single, plurilocular, the 

 cells often equal in number to the petals; ovules usually anatropal, one to 

 two in each cell ; style one ; stigmas distinct or united. Fruit baccate, 

 drupaceous or capsular, multilocular or by abortion unilocular, when valves 

 are present opening by loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds not winged ; albu- 

 men usually absent ; embryo straight, with leafy cotyledons. Trees or shrubs 

 with alternate (occasionally opposite), exstipulate, simple, or pinnate leaves. 

 They are chiefly found in the tropical parts of America and Asia. Tribe 

 1. Melieoe. Embryo in a perisperm. Leaflets often dentated. Example: 

 Melia. Trihe 2. TndiUiece. Embryo without perisperm. Leaflets very 

 entire. Example : Trichilia. 



Of the entire order there are about forty genera and 160 species. There 

 are none North American. Melia azedarach, however, is naturalized in the 

 southern States. It is there known as the Pride of China. 



Order 178. Rhizobolace.e, the Souari-Nut Family. Sepals five, more or 

 less combined ; aestivation imbricated. Petals usually five, unequal, thickish. 

 Stamens indefinite, slightly monadelphous, arising from a hypogynous disk, 

 in a double row of which the inner is often abortive ; anthers roundish, 

 with longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary tour- to five-celled ; ovules solitary, 

 semi-anatropal ; styles as many as the cells of the ovary ; stigmas simple. 

 Fruit formed of several indehiscent, one-celled, one-seeded nuts, with a 

 thick double endocarp. Seeds reniform, exalbuminous, with the funiculus 

 dilated into a spongy excrescence ; embryo with a very large radicle, which 

 constitutes nearly the whole of the kernel ; cotyledons small, lying in a 

 furrow of the radicle. Trees with opposite, palmately compound, coriaceous, 

 exstipulate leaves. They grow in the warm forests of South America. 

 Some of them furnish oil, others yield edible nuts. Souari nuts are the 

 produce of Caryocar butyrosum (Pekea butyrosa). Lindley notices two 

 genera and eight species. Examples : Caryocar, Anthodiscus. 



Order 179. Sapindace.*:. Flowers usually polygamous. Sepals four to 

 five, distinct or nearly so, iml)ricated in t^stivation. Petals as many as the 

 sepals and alternate with them, or fewer by the abortion of one (sometimes 

 entirely wanting), inserted outside the hypogynous disk (or row of glands) 

 which occupies the bottom of the calyx ; the inside either naked or hairy, 

 glandular or furnished with a petaloid scale. Stamens eight or ten, rarely 

 180 



