358 



LXXI. MELIANTHE^]. 



LXXL MELIANTHE^E? Endlicher. 



Meliant/iut. 

 Seed (mag.). 



Melianlhii.i. 



Seed, entire and cut vertically 



(mag.). 



Jftlianthtii. 

 Flower deprived of part of its 

 calyx and petals (mag.). 



iiHt abijtuinica. 

 Diagram. (From 

 Plauchon's ' Memoire.') 



SHEUBS, glabrous, glaucous or whitish. LEAVES alternate, stipulate, impari- 

 pinnate, leaflets unequilateral, toothed, decurrent ; stipules 2, free, or united into 

 one, very large, intrapetiolar. FLOWERS $ , in axillary and terminal racemes, 

 shortly pedicelled, bracteate, the lower sometimes apetalous, with 2 fertile and 2 

 sterile stamens. CALYX compressed, of 5 unequal segments, the inner very short, 

 distant, gibbous below, hooded at the top ; the others lanceolate, flat ; the two upper 

 larger, covering the lateral. PETALS 5, excentric (the fifth minute or 0), subperi- 

 gynous, narrow, long-clawed, cottony in the middle. DISK thickened, unilateral, 

 lining the gibbous bottom of the calyx, and distilling an abundant nectar. STAMENS 



1 A sub-order of Sapinducea- ; see p. 353. ED. 



