MELIACEiE. 459 



fleshy and indehiscent, or samaroid, or capsular, and 2-3 valved. 

 Seeds solitary, often arillate, exalbuminous ; embryo straight, curved, 

 or spiral; cotyledons incumbent; radicle next the hilum. — Trees or 

 shrubs, sometimes climbing herbaceous plants, with alternate, some- 

 times opposite, compound, rarely simple leaves, often marked with 

 lines or pellucid dots. They are natives principally of South America 

 and India. Africa contains many of them ; they are wanting in the 

 cold regions of the north. None are found wild in Europe. (In this 

 order some include the Hippocastanese or Horse-chestnuts, which are 

 distinguished by their opposite leaves, and their two ovules in each 

 cell, one ascending, the other suspended) (fig. 464, p. 258). Authors 

 give 70 genera, including 600 species. Examples — Sapindus, 

 Paullinia, Nephelium, Dodonsea, Meliosma, .^sculus, Pavia. 



In this order are included many plants which yield edible fruits, 

 and others which are poisonous. A saponaceous principle exists in 

 certain species. The fruit of Sapindus Saponaria, under the name of 

 Soap-berries, is used as a substitute for soap in the West Indies. The 

 Longan and Litchi are excellent Chinese fruits, the produce of Nephe- 

 livm Longan and N. Litchi. The kernel of the Longan powdered is 

 sometimes made into paper. Blighia or Oupania sapida yields the 

 Akee fruit, the succulent arillus of which is used as food. Many of 

 the PaulUnias are poisonous. Prom the seeds of Paullinia sorbilis, 

 however, the Guarana bread or Brazilian cocoa is prepared in Brazil. 

 The seeds, after being dried and deprived of their white aril, are 

 pounded and kneaded into a dough, which is afterwards made up 

 into cakes or balls. This guarana contains a bitter crystalline matter 

 called Gua,ranuie, identical with Caffeine. The bark of Msc%lus 

 Hippocastanum, Horse-chestnut, has been recommended as a febrifuge, 

 and its seeds have been used as a substitute for coffee. The fruit and 

 leaves of Msculus oMotensis, the Buck-eye or American Horse-chestnut, 

 are said to be poisonous. Paullinia pinnata, and some other Sapin- 

 dacese of Brazil, exhibit anomalous exogenous stems (fig. 124, p. 62). 

 Ophiocaryon paradoxum is the Snake-nut-tree of Demerara, and is so 

 called on account of the embryo resembling a coiled-up snake. 



Order 41. — Mbliace*, the Melia Family. (Polypet. Hypog.) 

 Sepals 4-5, more or less united, with an imbricated aestivation. Petals 

 4-5, hypogynous, sometimes cohering at the base, with a valvate or 

 imbricated aestivation. Stamens equal in number to the petals, or 2, 

 3 or 4 times as many ; filaments combined in a long tube ; anthers 

 sessile within the orifice of the tube. Disk often large and cup-shaped. 

 Ovary single, multUocular, the cells often equal in number to the 

 petals j ovules usually anatropal, 1-2 in each cell ; style 1 ; stigmas 

 distinct or^united. Fruit baccate, drupaceous or capsular, multilocu- 

 lar, or by abortion unilocular ; when valves are present opening by 

 loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds not winged ; albumen usually absent ; 



