MELIACEJU. 169 



HAB. Common. 



FL. Towards the end and earlier months of the year. 



A tree about 20 feet in height ; branches ash-coloured, te- 

 rete, towards their extremities slightly compressed, greenish, 

 puberulous. Leaves situated principally at the ends of the 

 branches ; leaflets 3-4-paired, petiolulated, ovato-lanceolate, 

 scarcely elliptic, acuminate with a blunt point, rounded and 

 unequilateral at the base, entire, nerved with the axils of the 

 nerves excavato-blistery and puberulous, otherwise glabrous, 

 membranaceous : petiole sub-terete: petiolule a third of an inch 

 in length. Racemes several, towards the ends of the branches, 

 axillary, solitary, shorter than the leaf, panicled : peduncle com- 

 pressed, minutely puberulous : branches alternate, dichoto- 

 mously subdivided, at length dividing into 3 pedicels : pedicels 

 about tbe 4th of an inch, terete, pubescent, 1-flowered : flowers 

 yellowish, fragrant. Bracteas oblong, one at each of the divi- 

 sions of the peduncle, deciduous ; bracteoles a pair, small, ovate, 

 opposite, below the middle of the two lateral pedicels, the cen- 

 tre one being naked. Calyx small, puberulous, 4-5-fid ; teeth 

 erect, bluntish. Petals 4-5, oblong, puberulous, spreading. 

 Stamens 810: filaments cohering for |ths of their length to 

 form a tube, 4-5-agonal, pubescent, ciliated : anthers yellow, 

 oblong, acute, with the apex incurved. Disk amber-coloured, 

 puberulous, 4 5-lobed. Ovary seated on the disk, green, coni- 

 cal, pubescent: style short; stigma capitate, acute, yellow. 

 Fruit size of a cherry, greenish, velutino-tomentose, globose, 

 3-valved, 3-celled ; usually with only 2 of the cells perfecting 

 the seed : seed solitary, hemispherical, blackish : arillus scarlet. 



This is, I have no doubt, the T. HIRTA of Swartz and De 

 Candolle. The name, however, appeared to me to be very 

 inapplicable, as even according to the specific character of the 

 latter Botanist, no part of the plant is particularized as being 

 remarkable for its hairiness. Specimens found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kingston were 8-androus : those collected in the 

 mountains were 10-androus. I may here mention that the fila- 

 ments only slightly cohere, and that they are easily separated. 



2. Trichilia spondioides. Plum-leaved Trichilia. 



Leaves impari-pinnate, leaflets 7-10 paired ovato- 

 lanceolate, when old glabrous, when young puberulous 

 along the under surface of the nerves and near the 

 margin, racemes axillary, filaments subdistinct. 



Evonymus caudice non ramoso, folio alato, fructu rotumlo 

 tripyreno, Sloane, II. 103. t. 210. f. 2 and 3 Trichilia spon- 

 dioides, Swartz, FL Ind. Occ, 730. Jacq. H. Schambr. I. t. 

 102. 



