472 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



double have been distinguislied.' Tliey are trees witli alternate 

 leaves, coinpoimd-pinuate or bi-, tri-piunate, often covered with star- 

 like hairs in the young parts, then glabrous ; the folioles are un- 

 symmetrical, dentate or serrate. The flowers are numerous, ar- 

 ranged in the axils of the leaves in very ramitied pedunculate 

 clusters, composed of cymes usually biparous. Thoy belong to the 

 warm regions of Asia and Australia. One of them has been intro- 

 duced into all the tropical and temperate parts of the world. 



Not far from the Azederachs are ranged Cipadessa, Munroma, and 

 Nareffamia, having like them compound or decomposite leaves, and 

 nearly all belonging to tropical Asia. The first has a gamosepalous 

 calyx with four or five teeth, valvate or slightly imbricate j^etals, 

 and stamens free above for a considerable extent of the filament, sur- 

 mounted on each side of the anther by a dorsal point generally longer 

 than itself. The gynceccum is surrounded by a small cupula-shaped 

 disk. 3Iunronia has foliaceous sepals and ten stamens united by their 

 filaments in a long tube, to the outer face of which are adnate, up to a 

 certain height, the long membranous and imbricate petals. The 

 ovary is suiTOunded by a disk enveloping it like a sack with superior 

 tubular opening, and the leaves are trifoliolate or pinnate. Narcganxia 

 has very nearly the flower of Mimronia ; but the long petals are 

 independent of the long tube of the androceum, formed of only five 

 pieces, with apiculate anthers ; the calyx is short and dentate. The 

 hypogynous disk is short, like that of Cipadessa, and the leaves are 

 ahvays trifoliolate. Qinvisia, consisting of shrubs from the eastern 

 islands of South Africa, is also closely allied to Melia and the pre- 

 ceding genera, especially Cipadessa, having its more or less imbricate 

 pentauierous or tetramerous calyx and corolla. But the stamiual 

 filaments are united in a tube to a greater height ; the ovary is desti- 

 tute of disk, and the organs of vegetation are very easily distin- 

 guished ; for they have simple leaves, usually alternate. There are 

 species of Quivisia from Oceania whose floral type is variable, whose 

 stamens may become few in number, and whose fruit is more fleshy 

 than the African species ; they have been called Vavcea. The leaves 



' Cav. Diss. t. 207, 208 {Azadirachta).— 380.— Te. Aim. So. Nat. sor. 5, xv. 363.— BoiKS. 



WioHT, loo,,, t. 17, 160.— C. Gay Fl. Chil. i. Fl. Or. i. 954.— Walp. Sep. i. 427; v. 373; 



373.— MiQ. Fl. I„d.-Bnt.\. p. ii, 632.— Giuseb. Ann. i. 963 ; iv. 386 ; tu. 553. 

 Fl. Brit. W.-Ind. 128.— Benth. Fl. Austral, i. 



