288 XL. SAPINDACE^. [Castanospora. 



bearded inflexed scales. Stamens 8, filaments about 1 line long, dilate'd and 

 hairy below. Ovary subovate. Style short. Capsule compressed or depressed- 

 globular, very shortly stipitate, about lin. diameter. Seeds resembling a chestnut 

 in colour. — Batonia Alphandi, F. v. M. Fragm. iv. 158. 



Hab.; Borders of creeks, tropical Queensland; Eockingham Bay; Johnstone, Mulgrave, the 

 Barron and other river scrubs. 



Wood of a yellowish color, hard, and close-grained. — Bailey's Cat. Ql. Woods No. 87a. 



2. (?) C. longistipitata (fruit long-stalked), Bail. A tree of about 40ft. in 

 height, the branchlets angular and puberulent. Leaves alternate ; leaflets from 

 2 to 9 pairs with occasionally a terminal one, 6 to 9in. long, 1^ to 2-|-in. broad, 

 oblong-lanceolate, nearly or at length quite glabrous, the primary nerves promi- 

 nent, oblique, parallel, rather distant, the reticulate veins obscure. Petioles 

 about 3|^in. long, enlarged and shortly decurrent upon the stem ; petiolules about 

 Jin. long, puberulent as well as the petioles and rhachis. Panicles racemose, in 

 the axils of the upper leaves, 8 or 9in. long. No flowers seen. Capsule nearly 

 globular, IJin. or more in diameter, tapering slightly at the base to a stipes of 

 lin., the outside velvety puberulent, indehiscent, or at length opening into 2 

 valves. Seeds solitary in the fruits examined ; testa loose, chartaceous. 



Hab.: Scrubs of the Barron Eiver, E. Cowley. 



4. SCHMIDELIA, Linn. 



(After C. C. Schmidel.) 



Flowers polygamous. Sepals 4, broadly imbricate, the outer ones smaller. 

 Petals 4, small, or rarely none. Disk one-sided, usually lobed or divided into 

 4 glands. Stamens 8, more or less one-sided. Ovary excentrical, 2 or rarely 

 3-celled ; style 2 or 3-lobed ; ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit of 1 or rarely 2 

 small ovoid or globular indehiscent, fleshy or almost dry berries. Seeds with a 

 short arillus ; embryo curved, cotyledons folded. — Shrubs or trees. Leaves 

 with 1 or 3 leaflets. Flowers very small, in simple or loosely paniculate axillary 

 racemes. 



The species are numerous in tropical America, with several African ones, and a few in tropical 

 Asia and the Indian Archipelago, one of the common Asiatic ones extending to Australia. The 

 genus is one of the most easily recognised in the Order, by its foliage as well as by its small 

 flowers and trmi.—Benth. 



1. S. serrata (serrate), DC. Prod. i. 610 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 455. A 

 straggling shrub or small tree, the young leaves and shoots pubesoent-tomentosfe, 

 often glabrous when full-grown. Leaflets 3, ovate or obovate-oblong, obtuse or 

 slightly acuminate, 2 to 4in. long, irregularly and coarsely toothed, or rarely 

 quite entire, sessile or narrowed into a short petiolule, glabrous above, pale or 

 pubescent underneath, often bearing hairy tufts in the axils of the principal 

 veins. Racemes slender, simple or slightly branched. Flowers ^ to nearly 1 line 

 diameter, on short pedicels, clustered along the pubescent rhachis. Petals 

 cuneate, with a minute scale. Disk of 4 small lobes or glands. Stamens 

 glabrous. Berries small, globular.— W. and Arn. Prod. 110 ; Ot-nitrophe serrata, 

 Roxb. PI. Corom. i. 44, t. 61 ; S. timoriensis, DC, Dene. Herb. Timor. 115. 



Hab.: Common along the tropical coast. 



The latter specimens are nearly glabrous, with the leaflets more sessile and narrowed at the 

 base, as described in S. timoriensis. Some of E. Brown's are similar ; others are more pubescent, 

 like the common form in India, where these characters are very variable ; and, as suggested by 

 W. and Arn., these plants may all be varieties only of S. CoVbe, Linn., which would thus have 

 a very wide range over tropical Asia, including the Archipelago.— Benth, 



