SAPINDACEJE. 



347 



of the staminal filament. These are two or three in number,^ alter- 

 nate with the large petals ; they are remarkable for a sort of dila- 

 tation of the connective which sm-rounds to a greater or less height 

 the two poricidal cells of the anther. The fruit of Meliosmu is a 

 monospermous ch'upe. The exalbuminous seed contains an embryo 

 with cotyledons more or less contortuplicate or spu'ally rolled and 



Meliosina Arnott'uina. 



Fig. 348. Stamen, 

 front. 



Fig. 34". Petal lined by 

 an appendage. 



Fig. 3-49. Stamen, 

 back. 



Fig. 350. Disk and 

 gynseceum. 



having a curved or flexuous radicle. This attains a very large 

 development in a species with large fruit,- from Guiauii, of which 

 the genus Ophiocarijon ^ has been made, and in which the style is 

 very short, so that each of its two ovary cells is surmounted by a 

 small stigmatiferous lobe. In another species from the same country, 

 distinguished under the generic name of PJioxanthus.,^ the fruit is 

 also voluminous, and the petals are very elongated and acute. On 

 the whole, the genus Mcliosjna, such as we limit it, contains twenty 

 species,^ three or four being American, all the others belong to the 

 tropical and sub-tropical regions of Asia and Oceania. They are trees 

 or shrubs, with alternate leaves, simple or compound-pinnate ; the 



exterior than the others, having been considered 

 by certain authors as bracts applied outside the 

 calyx. 



' With the other intei-pretation, the squamules 

 interior to the petals would represent stami- 

 nodcs, and then the number of piecea of the 

 androceum (sterile and fertile) would be equal in 

 number to those of the petals. 



' Perhaps they are tardily and incompletely 

 dehiscent, following a small longitudinal ridge 

 thoy bear on one side. 



' ScHOMii. Aim. Xal. Jthl. V. 202.— Lixdl. 

 Vep. Kingd. 383, fig. 208.— E.m>l. Oni. n. 5926'. 



— Benth. Hook, Lniid. Joxirn. iv. 376.— Pl. Fl. 

 des Serres, v. n. 300 ; Aim. f^c. Nat. ser. 4, iii. 

 29.5.-B. H. Ueii. 415, n. 4. 



* Bexth. Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 127, t. 23, 

 24.— B. H. Hen. 414, n. 8. 



* Bl. Riimphia, iii. t. 168. 109.— Wk;ht, III. 

 t. 53; Icon. t. 964.— Sciii.tl. Lhnirtn, xvi. 395. 

 — Gkiseii. Cat. PL Cub. 46— Thw. Enum. PI. 

 Xeiil. 408.— MiQ. Fl. Ind.-Bat. i. p. ii. 612 ; 

 Sup])l. i. 520 ; in Ann. Mas. Lngd.-Bal. iii. 93. 

 — Wali-. Rep. i. 423; Ann. i. 135 ; ii. 224 ; iii. 

 834 ; iv. 381 {Lorcnzeana) ; vii. 640. 



