SAPINDAOEM 



347 



of the staminal filament. These are two or three in number,^ alter- 

 nate with the large petals ; they are remarkable for a sort of dila- 

 tation of the connective which surrounds to a greater or less height 

 the two poricidal cells of the anther. The fruit of Meliosma is a 

 monospermous drupe. The exalbuminous seed contains an embryo 

 with cotyledons more or less contortuplicate or spirally rolled and 



Meliosma Arnottio/na. 



Kg. 348. Stamen, 

 front. 



■Fig. 347. Petal lined by 

 an appendage. 



Fig. 349. Stamen, 

 back. 



Kg. 350. Disk and 

 gynaeceum. 



haying a curved or flexuous radicle. This attains a very large 

 development in a species with large fruit,^ from Guiana, of which 

 the genu's Ophiocaryon ^ has been made, and in which the style is 

 very short, so that each of its two ovary cells is surmounted by a 

 small stigmatiferous lobe. In another species from the same country, 

 distinguished under the generic name of Phoxanihus^ the fruit is 

 also voluminous, and the petals are very elongated and acute. On 

 the whole, the genus Meliosma^ such as we limit it, contains twenty 

 species,^ three or four being American, all the others belong to the 

 tropical and sub-tropical regions of Asia and Oceania. They are trees 

 or shrubs, with alternate leaves, simple or compound-pumate ; the 



exterior than the others, having been considered 

 by certain authors as bracts applied outside the 

 calyx. 



1 With the other interpretation, the squamules 

 interior to the petals would represent stami- 

 nodes, and then the number of pieces of the 

 androceum (sterile and fertile) would be equal in 

 number to those of the petals. 



2 Perhaps they are tardily and incompletely 

 dehiscent, following a small longitudinal ridge 

 they bear on one side. 



' ScHOMB. Ann. Nat. JECist. v. 202. — Lindl. 

 Veg. Kingd. 383, fig. 268.— Endl. G-m. n. 59261. 



— Benth. Hook. Land. Journ.iv. 376.— Pl. Fl. 

 des Serves, v. n. 300 ; Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 4, iii. 

 296.— B. H. Gen. 415, n. 4. 



* Benth. 2Vans. Linn. Soo. xxii. 127, t. 23, 

 24.— B. H. Gen. 414, n. 8. 



' Bl. Simphia, iii. t. 168, 169.— Wight, III. 

 t. 53 ; Icon. t. 964.— Schltl. Zinncea, xvi. 395. 

 — Gmseb. Cat Fl. Cub. 46— Thw. Ihmm. PI. 

 Zeyl. 408.— MiQ. Fl. Ind.-Sat. i. p. ii. 612; 

 Suppl. i. 520 ; in Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. iii. 93. 

 — Walp. Sep. i. 423; Ann. i. 135 ; ii. 224 ; iii. 

 834 ; iv. 381 {Loreneeana) ; vii. 640. 



