Opilia.] XXXIV. OLAClNE^. 247 



nearly as long as the albumen. — Shrubs or small trees, sometimes climbing. 

 Leaves alternate, entire. Flowers in axillary racemes ; pedicels 3 together in 

 the axils of peltate bracts, which are imbricate at an early stage but fall off before 

 the flowers expand. 



A genus of 2 or perhaps 3 species, natives of tropical Asia and Africa, the Australian species 

 one of the widest dispersed.— iJentft. 



1. O. amentacea (inflorescence in catkins), Roxb. PL Gorom. ii. 81, t. 168 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 394. A scrambling, half-clinibing shrub or small weak tree, 

 glabrous or the young leaves and shoots minutely tomentose-pubescent. Leaves 

 petiolate, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or almost oblong, acute or acuminate, 2 to 3 or 

 even 4in. long, or rarely shorter and very obtuse, entire, thinly coriaceous, the 

 veins usually prominent though fine. Eaeemes before flowering resembling little 

 cylindrical cones of ^in., the peltate imbricate but almost squarrose bracts alone 

 visible, when in flower slender, about lin. long, without bracts. Flowers very 

 small, on filiform pedicels of about 1 line. Petals about J line long, very 

 deciduous. Drupe ovoid or globular, ^ to fin. long, or about the size of a pigeon's 

 egg. Pericarp white, flesh edible. Embryo linear, nearly as long as the albumen. — 

 Wight Illustr. t. 40 ; 0. javanica. 



Hab.: Eoekingham Bay. 



5. GOMPHANDRA, Wall. 

 (Swollen stamens — anthers.) 

 Calyx minute, cup-shaped, 4 or 6-lobed. Corolla oampanulate, 4 or 5-lobed, 

 lobes acuminate, inflexed, rarely free, midrib prominent within. Stamens 

 6, hypogynous, alternate with the petals, filaments thick, dilated above, hairy at 

 the back (in most species), hollowed in front to receive the anthers. Anthers 

 pendulous from the filiform apex of the filament, 2-lobed, dehiscing lengthwise ; 

 pollen-grains triangular. Hypogynous disk thick, angular or none. Ovary 

 sterile in the male, oblong in the female flower ; 1-celled ; style conic, stigma 

 minute, or style crowned by a stigmatiferous disk; ovules 2, collateral, pendulous, 

 funicle dilated into an " obturator." Fruit drupaceous, surmounted by the 

 remains of the disk (stigma ?), stone crustaceous. Seed pendulous, surrounded 

 by the raphe, albumen fleshy, bipartite ; embryo minute. Tree with alternate 

 leaves, simple l-nerved and petiqlated. Flowers in axillary, terminal, or leaf- 

 opposed cymes ; dichlamydeous, hermaphrodite or polygamo-dioeoious. — Hook. Fl. 

 Brit. Ind. i. 585. 



A genus probably of few species. Tropical Asia. 



Leaves often Sin. long, 4in. broad near the rounded base 1. G. australiana. 



Leaves about Sin. long, 2in. broad near the centre, base cuneate . . ... 2. G . polymorpJia. 



1. G-. australiana (Australian), F. v. M. Fragm. vi. 3 and 253 ix. 150; _ A 

 tall tree, bark pale-coloured. Leaves glabrous, 6in. or more long and 2 or 4in. 

 broad, broadly ovate, tapering from about the centre to an acuminate apex, very 

 minutely pelluoidly punctate, the under side paler than the upper ; lateral nerves 

 prominent, rather distant, texture ehartaceous. Peduncles axillary, cymes rather 

 few-flowered. Corolla tubular, about 2 lines long, toothed or lobed at the top, 

 glabrous. Stamens 5, a little exceeding the corolla. Filaments somewhat thick, 

 attenuated at the base. Anthers ovate, scarcely i line long, introrse. Ovary 

 glabrous. Fruit ellipsoid, lin. long. Pericarp yellowish ; endocarp cartilaginous- 

 crustaceous, the outside striate with thick longitudinal nerves. Radicle superior, 

 tenni-cylindric. Cotyledons rotundo-ovate. 



Hab.: Scrubs of tropical parts of the colony. 



