MELIACE^E 337 



Stem woody, erect, terete, pubescent, soon becoming brown and 

 throwing off the epidermis; 1st internode 2-9 cm. long; 2nd 

 3-45 cm. ; 3rd 1-5 mm. ; 4th 3'75 mm. ; 5th 1-5 mm. ; 6th 2-25 mm. ; 

 7th 5 mm. ; 8th 6 mm. 



Leaves simple, ultimately pinnate, cauline, alternate, exstipulate, 

 petiolate, glabrous, coriaceous, penninerved, deep green above, paler 

 beneath ; petioles channelled above, pubescent, short. 



Nos. 1 and 2. Opposite, reduced to small, brown scales. 



Nos. 3-6. Small, aggregated, oval, emarginate, entire. 



Nos. 7-9. Much larger, oval, emarginate, otherwise entire. 



ILICINEJE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 355. 



Fruit and Seed. The Order contains some 150 species, all 

 of which belong to the genus Ilex with four exceptions. The 

 ovary is mostly made up of three to five carpels, rarely six 

 to eight as in some species of Ilex. The three species of 

 Byronia however vary with ten to eighteen carpels. The 

 ovules are solitary or geminate in different species of Ilex, 

 pendulous from the tip of axile placentas, collateral and ana- 

 tropous; in Nemopanthes they are solitary. The raphe is 

 dorsal, rarely lateral, with a superior radicle. The fruit is 

 drupaceous, with a very thin succulent layer surrounding a 

 bony, crustaceous, or rarely cartilaginous endocarp. When 

 the carpels are mature they are separable into as many pyrene s, 

 each containing a solitary pendulous seed conforming to the 

 cavity. The testa is membranous, surrounding a copious 

 fleshy endosperm, in which the minute embryo is embedded 

 close to the superior hilum. The embryo is straight. The 

 common Holly (Ilex Aquifolium) is a good type. The fruit 

 consists of four pyrenes, and is small, as in all other species of 

 the Order. The embryo is globose or obovoid, with the coty- 

 ledons about equal to the blunt radicle. The funicle forms a 

 little cap surmounting the upper end. 



Ilex Aquifolium, L. (fig. 240). 



Primary root long, tapering downwards, colourless, with a few 

 lateral rootlets. 



