244 PHANEROGAMIA. 



said to occur in cultivated ground only, planted by the natives, at 

 Tongatabu, Savai, one of the Navigators' Islands, and Tahiti. It is 

 mentioned by Dr. Pickering as the Mallea Rotldi, A. Juss. (which I 

 observe A. Kichard enumerates as collected by Lesson at Tongatabu) : 

 but it cannot be that plant, nor of the same genus. 



*** MELIACEIS AFFINE. 



8. VAV^EA, Benth. 



Calyx k—l-fidus, persistans; lobis triangulari-ovatis cestivatione leviter 

 imbricatis. Petala lobis calycis numero cequalia, hypogyna, ligulato- 

 oblonga, utrinque sericeo-puberula, cestivatione leviter imbricata, deci- 

 clua. Stamina 12-20, inwquilonga : filamenta basi glabra in tubum 

 disco hypogyno cupuliformi carnoso adnatum monadelpha, superne 

 intus hirsutissirna : antlierce introrsce, biloculares, loculis longitudi- 

 naliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium intra discum sessile, %—k-loculare, in 

 stylum columnarem externum : stigma crassum, peltatum, obscure 3—4- 

 radiatum. Ovula in loculis gemina, angulo centrali affixa, collate- 

 ralia, adscendens, subamphitropa, micropyle supera. Bacca globosa, 

 abortu l-k-sperma. — Arbuscula glabella; foliis simplicibus obovato- 

 oblongis alternis obsoletissime punctatis; pediinculis ex axillis supe- 

 rioribus multifloris; floribus cymosis. 



Vav^ea, Benth. in Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. 2, p. 212. 



1. Vav^ea Amicorum, Benth. I. c. (Tab. 16.) 



Hab. Muthuata and Vanua-levu, Feejee Islands. Also, Tongatabu, 

 Friendly Islands. (Vavao, Friendly Islands, Mr. Barclay.) 



Apparently a small tree (the size not recorded), glabrous or glabrate, 

 except the nascent parts (which are silky-pubescent) and the flowers. 

 The bark is said to be bitter, like that of Canella. Leaves alternate, 

 crowded towards the end of the branches, simple, entire, obovate-oblong, 

 obtuse, or retuse, or sometimes obscurely acuminate, occasionally 

 cuneate-obovate, always acute at the base, tapering into a petiole of 



