180 BOTANY. 
of central America, and probably of Florida. Most of the mahogany wood 
of commerce comes from the bay of Honduras, and is brought in logs. One 
of the largest logs ever exported was seventeen feet long, fifty-seven inches 
broad, and sixty-four inches thick, weighing 30,000lbs. 
Swietenia mahogoni, Mahogany tree (pl. 67, jig. 7); a, a flowering 
branch ; 6, corolla with staminal tube; ¢, the latter expanded; d, anther ; ¢, pis- 
til; 7, cross-section of ovary ; g, capsule; h, ditto opened ; 2, a winged seed. 
Orver 177. Mettacea, the Melia Family. Sepals four to five, more or 
less united, with an imbricated estivation. Petals four to five, hypogynous, 
sometimes cohering at the base, with a valvate or imbricated estivation. 
Stamens equal in number to the petals, or two, three, or four 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, pturilocular, the 
cells often equal in number to the petals; ovules usually anatropal, one to 
two in each cell; style one; stigmas distinct or united. Fruit baccate, 
drupaceous or capsular, multilocular or by abortion unilocular, when valves 
are present opening by loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds not winged; albu- 
men usually absent; embryo straight, with leafy cotyledons. Trees or shrubs 
with alternate (occasionally opposite), exstipulate, simple, or pinnate leaves. 
They are chiefly found in the tropical parts of America and Asia. TZiabe 
1. Melee. Embryoina perisperm. Leaflets often dentated. Example: 
Melia. Tribe 2. Trichiliew. Embryo without perisperm. Leaflets very 
entire. Example: Trichilia. 
Of the entire order there are about forty genera and 160 species. There 
are none North American. Melia azedarach, however, is naturalized m the 
southern States. It is there known as the Pride of China. 
Orper 178. Rurzopotaces, the Souari-Nut Family. Sepals five, more or 
less combined ; estivation imbricated. Petals usually five, unequal, thickish. 
Stamens indefinite, slightly monadelphous, arising from a hypogynous disk, 
in a double row of which the inner is often abortive; anthers roundish, 
with longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary four- to five-celled; ovules solitary, 
semi-anatropal; styles as many as the cells of the ovary; stigmas simple. 
Fruit formed of several indehiscent, one-celled, one-seeded nuts, with a 
thick double endocarp. Seeds reniform, exalbuminous, with the funiculus 
dilated into a spongy excrescence; embryo with a very large radicle, which 
constitutes nearly the whole of the kernel; cotyledons small, lying in a 
furrow of the radicle. Trees with opposite, palmately compound, coriaceous, 
exstipulate leaves. They grow in the warm forests of South America. 
Some of them furnish oil, others yield edible nuts. Souari nuts are the 
produce of Caryocar butyrosum (Pekea butyrosa). Lindley notices two 
genera and eight species. Examples: Caryocar, Anthodiscus. : 
Orver 179. Saprmnpacex. Flowers usually polygamous. Sepals four to 
five, distinct or nearly so, imbricated in xestivation. Petals as many as the 
sepals and alternate with them, or fewer by the abortion of one (sometimes 
entirely wanting), inserted outside the hypogynous disk (or row of glands) 
which occupies the bottom of the calyx; the inside either naked or hairy, 
glandular or furnished with a petaloid scale. Stamens eight or ten, rarely 
180 
