SAPINDACEM. 



the gynseceum is imperfectly knowu. The Dodonceas are, on the 

 contrary, known in all their parts and placed by all in this family, 

 although they have not the disk, with the characters it generally 

 presents. In the male flowers, it is wanting or very little deve- 

 loped ; in the female it is interior to the stamens. The perianth is 

 solely formed of a variable number of sepals, from two to six, valvate 

 or imbricate. There are five to eight stamens, and the cells of the 

 ovary, two to six in number, contain each two oblique ovules, both 

 ascendent or descendent, or one of them ascendent and the other 

 descendent. The fi-uil is a septicidal capsule, with angles projecting 

 or developed in wings. The Dodonœas^ trees or shrubs fi'omall tropical 

 countries, are especially abundant in Oceania. They have simple or 

 compound pinnate leaves, and small polygamous or dioecious flowers 

 arranged in ramified clusters of cymes. The Distichostemons, Aus- 

 ti'alian shrubs, with simple hairy leaves, were formerly confounded 

 with the Dodoncvas ; they differ in their aspect, their sepals five to 

 eight in number, and the indefinite number of their stamens. Their 

 3-4 lobate ovary becomes a coriaceous capsule with short wings. 



The Alvaradoas, shrubs from Mexico and the Antilles, form a very 

 distinct small group. The leaves are imparipinnate, and the dioe- 

 cious flowers, arranged in clusters or spikes, have a pentamerous 

 calyx, five petals, filiform or wanting, and five oppositipetalous sta- 

 mens. To their- bi- or tri-locular ovary succeeds a dry fruit, sur- 

 mounted by a narrow ver- 



. 1 1 T .1 Llttguiioa ylandulosa. 



tical wmg, double or triple, 

 appearing to result from 

 the tardy development of 

 the style. The ovules and 

 seeds are moreover ascen- 

 dent. 



Akania, a tree from Aus- 

 tralia, is also the type of a 

 small isolated sub-series, 

 because its flowers have a 

 concave receptacle lined 

 inwardly by the disk. It is consequently a perigynous Sapindacea. 

 Its imbricate sepals and petals, and its stamens, are inserted on the 

 cii'cumference of the receptacular cup, whilst its gynseceum with 



370. Flower {\). 



Fig. 371. Longitudinal 

 section of flower. 



