824 XLl. ANACARDIACE^. [Semecarpm. 



margin. Male panicles pyramidal, shorter than or as long as the leaves. Flowers 

 very small, sessile, and clustered. Bracts i to 1 line long. Calyx very short. 

 Petals scarcely 1 line long. Ovary minute and rudimentary or reduced to a tuft 

 of hair. Female flowers sometimes larger than the male calyx-lobes, ^ line long. 

 Petals li line long and almost 1 line broad. Stamens in female flowers shorter 

 than the petals. Drupe oblique-conoid, compressed, 1 to IJin. diameter, and 

 about |in. thick, rugose, supported upon a large, fleshy, succulent pedicel,, the 

 nut surrounded inside near the margins by a row of oil-cells. — S. anacardium, in 

 Fl. Austr. i. 491. 



Hab.: Trinity Bay to Cape York, and the islands of Torres Straits and the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



Wood yellow with brown markings, easy to work, strong and tough ; might be used in cabinet- 

 work.— BaiJci/'s Cat. Ql, Woods No. 110. 



7. PLEIOGYNIUM, Engler. 



(Alluding to its many female parts. From the specific name given to it by 

 Baron Mueller when placing it in Spnndias.) 



Flowers dioecious or polygamous. Calyx deeply 5-parted, segments ovate, imbri- 

 cate. Petals 5, imbricate, twice as long as the calyx, obovate, inserted below an 

 annulate crenate disk. Stamens 10, inserted with the petals ; filament filiform- 

 subulate. Anthers ovate, versatile, cells longitudinal, their dehiscence introrse. 

 Ovary abortive in the male flowers, in the female flowers of from 6 to 10 or 12 

 carpels. Ovary depressed, 5 to 10 or 12-oelled ; ovule 1 in each cell, pendulous; 

 micropyle superior. Styles short, divergent ; stigma spathulate, at length patent 

 or reflexed. Drupes slightly depressed, broadly turbinate, with the summit a 

 little elevated and the lower part slightly angular ; epicarp fleshy ; endocarp 

 thick, woody, shiny on the inside, 5 to 12-celled ; cells securiform. Seeds 

 compressed, oblong, and slightly outwardly curved. Embryo with oblong plano- 

 convex cotyledons and short superior radicle. — A tree, the branehlets terete, the 

 foliage clustered at their extremities. Leaves impari-pinnate ; petiole and rhachis 

 slightly angular ; leaflets membranous, oval, obtuse, often oblique and narrowed 

 at the base ; lateral nerves patent. Panicles axillary. — Prom Ad. Engler, 

 diagnosis in De CandoUe's Monogr. Phanera. iv. 255, t. vii., fig. 1, 10. 



1. P. Solandri (after Dr. D. C. Solander), Engler, I.e. Sweet Plum, 

 B urdekin Plum. " Noongi," Port Curtis ; " Bungya," Bundaberg, Keys ; 

 " Eanoooran," Rockhampton, Thozet. A tree of medium size, frequently 

 unisexual, the branehlets and foliage from velvety pubescent to nearly glabrous. 

 Leaves 3 to Tin. long, on petioles of about 1 or 2in. long ; slightly angular as 

 well as the rhachis ; leaflets petiolulate, of from 2 to 5 pairs, and a terminal odd 

 one, oval-oblong, 2 to 4in. long, and except the end one, which has a rather long 

 cuneate base, very oblique at the base ; the primary veins branched and often 

 glandular, and forming a cavity in the axil at the midrib. Panicles (the male 

 about 5in. long with abortive ovary), slender, narrow and drooping, the flowers 

 with a few short branches, in small clusters along the branches, female usually in 

 spikes not exceeding 2in., with short stamens and sterile anthers. Bracteoles 

 ovate, minute, sessile. Calyx -segments roundish, scarcely exceeding ^ line long. 

 Petals yellowish-green, about 1 line long, subovate, veined, glabrous above. 

 Filaments linea,r-§i(bulate, 1 line long. Styles conico-subulate, stellately 



