Moringa.'] XLVIII. MORINGE.E. (J. D. Hooker.) 45 



inmate, rarely ovate-oblong or elliptic and acute or acuminate, minutely serrulate. 

 Eacemes axillary or in the forks, solitary or clustered, 2-6 in. long, rachis glabrous 

 or pubescent; bracteoles oblong, concave, deciduous. Flowers about gin. diam. Fruit 

 ^-i in. diam., black. 



OKDER XLVIII. 1VIORINCEJE. (By J. D. Hooker.) 



Deciduous trees -with soft wood. Leaves alternate, odd-pinnate or 2-3-pin- 

 nate ; leaflets opposite, quite entire, caducous as well as the pinnules, glandular 

 at the base. Panicles axillary. Flowers irregular, bisexual. Calyx cup- 

 shaped, 5-cleft ; segments unequal, petaloid, deciduous from above the base, im- 

 bricate. Petals 5, unequal, upper smaller, lateral ascending, anterior larger. 

 Stamens inserted on the edge of the disk, declinate, 5 perfect opposite the petals 

 alternating with 5 (or 7) which are reduced to antherless filaments ; anthers 

 dorsifixed, 1-celled. Disk lining the calyx-tube. Ovary stipitate, 1-celled ; 

 style slender, tubular, stigma perforated ; ovules numerous, in 2 series, on 3 pa- 

 rietal placentas. Capsule elongate, beaked, 3-6-angled, 1-celled, loculicidally 

 3-valved, corky and pitted within. Seeds many, in pits of the valves, testa 

 corky winged or not, albumen ; embryo straight, cotyledons plano-convex, 

 radicle very short superior, plumule many-leaved DISTKIB. 3 species, natives of 

 Western Asia and N. Africa. 



A natural order of very doubtful affinity, which has been referred to near Resedacea, 

 Capparidece, Melianthca?, Fiolariece, Polygalca, Leguminosce, Bigncniaccce, and others. 



XKORXNGA, Lamk. 



Character of the order. 



1. Itt. pteryg-osperma, Geertn. ; DC. Prodr. ii. 478 ; leaflets elliptic 

 ovate or obovate, nerves obscure, flowers white, capsule 9-ribbed, seeds winged. 

 W. $ A. Prodr. 178 ; Wight III. i. 186, t. 77 ; Bedd. Flor. Sylvat. t. 80 ; Dak. $ 

 Gibs. Bomb.Fl. 314 ; Grah. Cat. Bomb. PI. 43 ; Brand. For. Fl. 129 ; Wall. Cat. 

 5814. M. oleifera, Lfimk. Encycl. i. 398. M. zeylanica, Pers. M. polygona, 

 DC. Prodr. ii. 478. Hyperanthera Moringa, Vahl. ; -Roxb. FL Ind. ii. 368 ; 

 Griff. Notul. iv. 572, t. 609. II. decandra, Wittd. Guilandina Moringa, Linn. 

 Rheede Hort. Mai. vi. t. 11. 



Forests of WESTERN HIMALAYA and OTJDH, and cultivated elsewhere throughout 

 India. DISTKIB. Cultivated in various tropical countries. 



A small tree, baric corky, wood soft, root pungent; young parts tomentose. 

 Leases 1-2 ft., usually 3-pinnate ; petiole slender, sheathing at the base; pinnae 4-6 

 pairs ; leaflets 6-9 pairs, ^-^ in., opposite, pale beneath ; petiohiles slender ; glands 

 linear, hairy. Panicles spreading, bracts linear. Flowers pedicelled, 1 in. diam., honey- 

 scented. Sepals linear-lanceolate, reflexed. Petals narrowly spathulate. Fertile 

 filaments villous at the base. Ovary hairy. Pod 9-18 in., pendulous, 9-ribbed. 

 Seeds 3-gonous, winged at the angles. The liur <-; -,!i>]; v tree. 



2. UK. concanensis, Nimmo in Grah. Cat. Bomb. PL 43 ; leaflets 1- 

 1^- in. broadly elliptic or orbicular, nerves 4-6 pair distinct. Dalz. $ Gibs, 

 Bomb. Flor. 311 ; Brandts For. Flor. 130. 



KAJPUTANA, on dry hills ; SINDH and the 



A tree, very similar to M. pterygosperma, but the leaves are much larger as are 

 the leaflets, which are often retuse at the tip ; the petals are yellowish streaked with 

 pink. Seeds -J- in. long, very broadly trigonous with membranous wings. This may 

 possibly be the red-flowered species alluded to by Roxburgh (Fl. Ind. ii. 368) as occur- 

 ring near Maldali. 



