MELIACE.E. 475 



sometimes inserted one above the other. The base of the gyneeceum 

 is suiTOunded by a disk resembling a ring projecting or mounting, 

 in the form- of a glandulous layer more or less thick, sometimes 

 along the ovary, sometimes on the internal face of the staminal tube. 

 The fruit is capsular, very nearly globular, with pericarp often 

 coriaceous, dehiscent in two or three valves which have a partition 

 on the middle of their internal face, with one or two seeds sur- 

 rounded by a fleshy membrane,^ and containing under their coats a 

 fleshy exalbuminous embryo, with thick plano-convex cotyledons 

 and short superior radicle. There are flowers of Trichilia which are 

 tetramerous, octandrous ; the staminal tube perhaps cut straight at 

 the top and destitute of appendages ;^ it may split unequally during 

 anthesis ; ^ and the eight or ten staminal filaments may become free 

 for nearly all or even for the whole of their length,* without all these 

 variations being sufficient to distinguish genera in this group, which, 

 thus understood, contains about thirty species.* They belong to the 

 tropical regions of Africa, and especially of America. — They are trees 

 or shrubs, glabrous or covered with hair. The leaves are alternate, 

 imparipinnate or trifoliolate, with folioles opposite or alternate and 

 flowers usually numerous, axillary, collected in more or less ramified 

 clusters of cymes or glomerules. 



Odontandra^ was formerly confounded with Trichilia; it is a closely 

 allied genus from tropical America, formed of plants with 1-3-folio- 

 late or imparipinnate leaves, whose flowers have four or five valvate 

 petals, free or united at the base, a disk slightly developed or want-- 

 ing, loculicidal fruits and seeds with fleshy external envelope. This 

 genus should not be retained, since it may include species with a 

 highly developed disk and flowers with corolla very distinctly im- 

 bricate. We make them a section of Trichilia. 



Owenia, formed of Australian trees, with pinnate leaves, are closely 

 allied with Trichilia, having the calyx and corolla imbricate, with a 



' Seeming to be an aril generalised or nearly 246 (part.). — Griseb. Fl. Brit. TF.-lnd. 129. — 



so. Tk. Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, xv. 36.3, 372 {Odontan- 



2 In the section Portesia (Cav.). dra). — Walp. Rep. i. 432 ; ii. 817 ; y. 375 ; Ann. 



* Sect. Aerilia (Gtriseb.). ii. 227 ; iv. 389 ; yii. 558. 



* Sect. Mafureim (Gbisbb.). ° H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Spec. vii. 229.— A. 

 5 jAca. Amer. t. 82, 175; Sort. Schainbr. t. Juss. Meliac. 103. — Endl. Oen. n. 5547.— B. II. 



102.— H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Spec. v. 214 ; vii. Oen. 337, n. 26.- Elntheria P. Br. Jam. 369 (not 



226. — A. S. H. Fl. Bras. Mer. ii. 76, t. 98 'S.W£.).—Mo8choxijlum A. Juss. Melinc. 88, t. 8, 



{M'ischoxi/lum), S9.—GvnA.Eyi. et Terr. Fl. Sen. n. 19. —Endl. Gen. n. 5542. — B. H. Gen. 33S, 



Tent. i. 125, t. 30. — Harv. et Sond. Fl. Cap. i. n. 25. -Odoiiiosiphon R(EM. S)/n. 85. 



