35 



Order XXYI. MALPIGHIACE^. 



Flowers bisexual, regular. Calyx 5-parted, imbricate, some 

 or all of the segments 2-glanded at back. Petals 5, clawed, 

 spreading. Disk expanded or often inconspicuous. Stamens 

 10 (5 sometimes abortive), connate at base. Ovary of 3 or 2 

 imperfectly united carpels, 3-2-lobed ; ovules solitary. Albu- 

 men 0. — Shrubs, erect or climbing, with mostly opposite, sim- 

 ple, mostly entire leaves, and corymbose or racemose, red or 

 yellow flowers. Pubescence silky. 



Carpels each with a single dorsal wing 1. Aceidocaepus. 



Carpels each 2- or several- winged. 



Stvles 3. Petals fringed 2. Tkiaspis. 



Style 1. Petals sagittate-ovate 3. Tristellateia. 



1. ACKIDOCARPUS, Guill. and Perr. 



Calyx 5-fid, minutely glandular or glandless. Petals un- 

 equal, clawed, glabrous, subentire. Stamens 10, all perfect ; 

 filaments distinct, short, rigid ; anthers large, eordato-lanceo- 

 late, glabrous. Ovary 3-celled, hairy, each lobe with a dorsal 

 wing ; styles 2, very long, divergent, filiform, flexuous, acute, 

 coiled up in aestivation. Samaras 1-2, on an oblong recep- 

 tacle expanding above into a straight or oblique wing, which 

 is thickened along its upper margin. — Fl. Cap. i. p. 231 ; 

 Thes. Cap. t. 19. 



Trees or shrubs, erect or climbing. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, 

 glabrous or silky. Racemes or corymbs terminal or lateral. Flower yel- 

 low. — 3 species in the Natal country. 



2. TRIASPIS, Burch. 



Calyx short, 5-parted, without glands. Petals longer than 

 the calyx, clawed, fringed. Stamens 10, fertile, unequal, con- 

 nate at base and adnate to the stipe of the ovary. Carpels 3, 

 each expanded into a wing at each side, and united into a 

 3-lobed, 6-winged, shortly stipitate ovary ; styles 3, glabrous, 

 elongate, flat, acute. Samaras 3 or fewer, winged at the mar- 

 gin, the wing shield-like, sometimes interrupted at the apex, 

 commonly dorsally crested in the middle. — Fl. Cap. i. p. 232. 



Mostly climbers. T. hypericoides, Beh., an erect shrub 3-4 feet high, 



with opposite, linear, glabrous leaves and rosy flower, was found by Bur- 



chell at Kosi Font, lat. 27° 52'. . 

 f 



3. TRISTELLATEIA, Thouars. 



Calyx 5-parted, with minute glands or none. Petals 

 clawed, keeled externally, glabrous, sagittate-ovate. Stamens 

 10, fertile, connate at base, those opposite the petals longer. 



n 2 



