358 



LXXI. MELIANTHBiB. 



LXXI. MELIANTHEyE,^ Endlicher. 





Meliaiithus. 

 Flower (mag.) 



MeUanthus. 

 Seed (mag.). 



MeUanthus. 



Seed, entire and cut vertically 



(mag.). 



Mdiantlms. 

 Plowef deprived of part of its 

 calyx and petals (mag.). 



MeUaiiihu 

 Fruit. 



Bevsema ahyssinica. 



Diagram. (From 



Planchon's ' Mtooire.') 



Shrubs, glabrous, glaucious or whitish. Leaves alternate, stipulate, impari- 

 pinnate, leaflets unequilateral, toothed, decurrent ; stipules 2, free, or united into 

 one, very large, intrapetiolar. Flowers g , in axillary and terminal racemes, 

 shortly pedicelled, bracteate, the lower sometimes apetalous, with 2 fertile and 2 ' 

 sterile stamens. Calyx compressed, of 5 unequal segments, the inner very short, 

 distant, gibbous below, hooded at the top ; the others lanceolate, flat ; the two upper 

 larger, covering the lateral. Petals 5, excentric (the fifth minute or 0), subperi- 

 gynous, narrow, long-clawed, cottony in the middle. Disk thickened, unilateral, 

 lining the gibbous bottom of the calyx, and distilling an abundant nectar. Stamens 



' A sub-order of Saplndaceis ; see p. 3o3.— Ed. 



