Ximenia.\ XXXIV. OLACINEiE. 24S 



1. X. americana (American), Linn., DC. P)W. i. 538 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 i. 891. " Gotoobah," Bellenden Ker. {Mrs. Gribble). A glabrous shrub, or 

 sometimes a small tree, with spreading branches, often armed with axillary spines 

 (abortive peduncles). Leaves petiolate, ovate, obtuse, or scarcely acute, 1 to 2in. 

 long, entire, the veins inconspicuous, except the midrib. Pedaneles short, bear- 

 ing little cymes of 3 to 7 yellowish sweet-scented flowers, rarely reduced to a 

 single one. Calyx minute, 4-toothed. Petals 4, recurved, 8 to 4 lines long, 

 densely bearded inside with long white hairs. Stamens 8, filaments crooked, 

 anthers large. Drupe yellow, attaining lin. diameter or rather more. — X. ellip- 

 tica, Forst. ; Labill. Sert. Austr. Caled. 84, t. 87 ; A', laurina, Delile, in Ann. So. 

 Nat. ser. 2; xx. 89 ; X exaniata, F. v. M. in Trans. Phil. Inst. Vict. iii. 22. 



The species is widely spread over the tropical regions of both the New and the Old World, 

 varying in most places with or without thorns. The Pacific and New Caledonian X. elliptica has 

 been distinguished from the common form as having a globular, not elliptical fruit ; but some of 

 Gardner's specimens from Brazil have certainly also the fruit globular. The Australian speci- 

 mens, like the majority of those in our herbaria, are without fruit ; they arfe unarmed, or have 

 only small nascent spines in the axils of some of the young leaves.— Bemtfe. 



Hab.: Clermont, H. Salmon; Hammond Island, where it is known as Yellow Plum, Mrs. 

 Smyth ; Somerset, F. L. Jardine. 



Wood close-grained, tough, hard, and light in colour. It works like English Box, and might 

 be suitable for engraving. — Bailey's Cat. Ql. Woods No. 74d. 



Fruit eaten by natives, Mrs. Gribble. 



2. OLAX, Linn. 

 (Flowers furrowed or imbricated.) 

 (Spermaxyrum, Labill.) 

 Calyx small, cup-shaped, truncate, enlarged after flowering and enclosing the 

 fruit. Petals 6 or 6, free, or slightly cohering, valvate in the bud. Stamens 

 usually 3, alternate with the petals, the filaments adnate to the petals and con- 

 necting them in pairs ; staminodia as many as petals and opposite to them, fili- 

 form or flat, entire or 2-cleft. Ovary free, 1-celled, or very shortly 8-celled at 

 the base ; stigma entire or slightly 3-lobed ; ovules 3, pendulous from a central 

 placenta. Drupe globular or oblong, enclosed in the enlarged calyx, but free from 

 it, the sarcocarp thin. Seed spuriously erect ; embryo very small in the apex of 

 a fleshy albumen. — Trees, shrubs, or undershrubs, rarely half climbing, the 

 Australian species all erect shrubs, with small alternate, entire, distichous leaves, 

 the veins inconspicuous, except the midrib. Flowers axillary, solitary in the 

 Australian species, several in short racemes or spikes in some others. 



The genus is confined to the Old World, extending over tropical Asia and Africa. The 

 Australian species are all endemic, and differ from all except the E. Indian 0. nana, Wall., in 

 their solitary axillary flowers and small leaves. They have all 5 petals, 3 stamens, and 5 

 staminodia. — Benth. 

 Staminodia 2-eleft to the middle. Leaves rather thin, narrow, retuse (Eastern 



species) 1. 0. retusa. 



Staminodia undivided. 



Leaves narrow-oblong, mucronate. Staminodia linear, bearded at the base . 2. 0. stricta. 



Leaves reduced to minute scales. Flowers densely bearded inside. Staminodia 



linear .... . . 3. 0. aphylla. 



1. O. retusa (referring to the blunt end of the leaf), F. v. M. Herb, as a var. 

 of 0. stricta ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 392. A glabrous shrub, with the slender virgate 

 branches of 0. stricta. Leaves linear-cuneate or narrow-oblong, truncate and 

 emarginate, or almost 2-lobed, minutely mucronate, rarely exceeding |in. and 

 smaller on the lateral branches, rounded at the base. Pedicels very short. 

 Flowers about 2 lines long. Filaments glabrous, dilated at the base ; staminodia 

 bearded below the middle, glabrous above and divided into 2 linear lobes. Fruit 

 ovoid-oblong, not exceeding 3 lines in the specimens seen. 

 Hab.: Islands of Moreton Bay, Stanthorpe. 



