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Chapter XV. 



Order XV.— MELIACE^. The Melia Eamily. 



Chaeactee op the Oedee. — Trees (rarely shrubs). 

 Leaves, usually pinnate, alternate, exstipulate. Flowers, 

 regular, generally hermaphrodite. Calyx, small, 4 or 5, lobed 

 or parted, imbricate. Petals, 4 or 5, contorted, vallate or 

 imbricate, often long, sometimes united to the staminal tube. 

 Disk, free, or "wanting, sometiiucs tubular within the stamens. 

 Stamens, usually 8 or 10, more or less united into a tube, 



bearing the sessile anthers within its mouth, which is often 

 toothed or split. Ovary, free, 3-5-celled ; style, single, 

 terminal ; stigma, capitate ; cells, 2-ovuled. Fruit, a drupe, 

 berry, or capsule, usually the latter, coriaceous, 3-celled, 

 locuiicidally 3-valved. .Seeds generally solitary in the cells, 

 mostly ariilate and exalbuminous. — Sandbooi of the New 

 Zealand Flora, p. 40. 



Description of the Order.— 



I f HIS is a very large order of tropical forest trees, of which various genera 

 present characters of the flower aud fruit at variance with the 

 above description. They are chiefly found in the equatorial parts of 

 America and Asia, and possess bitter tonic and astringent properties. 

 The Mahogany, Swletenia maliagoni, the Satin Wood, Chloroxijlon 

 swietenia, and the Pride of India, Ilelia azeclarachta, all belong to this 

 order. Melia azeclarachta is used in India as a febrifuge, and its fruit yields an oil, 

 which is used for domestic purposes and as an anti-spasmodic. The root is bitter, and is 

 employed as a vermifuge. Oils are also produced from species of Trichilia and Carapa. 

 There are upwards of 40 genera in the order, and above 180 species. New Zealand is 

 represented by only one species, Dysoxylum spectabile. 



