XIV. RUTACEjE. 
39 
dite. — Sepals and petals 4 or 5, spreading, imbricate or valvate. Stamens 
usually 8 or 10, free, inserted at the base of a tttmid disk; anthers versatile. 
Ovary of 4 or 5, more or less united carpels ; styles 4 or 5, wholly combined, 
or by a capitate stigma only ; cells 2-ovuled. Fruit capsular, of 4 or 5 coria- 
ceous, 2-valved, 1-seeded cocci ; outer coat separating from the inner, which 
is chartaceous, dry, and elastic. Seeds oblong, testa crustaceous ; albumen 
copious or 0. 
A very large Natural Order, now including the Rue, Orange, Cape Diosmas, Australian 
Boronias, and many other plants differing in certain points from the above ordinal character, 
abounding in the temperate regions of the southern hemispheres, especially in South Africa 
and Australia, rarer elsewhere. 
Flowers pentamerous. Leaves simple : 1. Phebaliuji 
Flowers tetramerous. Leaves compound 2. Melicope. 
1. PHEBALIUM, Yentenat. 
Shrubs. Leaves alternate, pellucid-dotted. Flowers in axillary or termi- 
nal corymbs, white. — Calyx small, 4 or 5-lobed or -parted. Petals 4 -or 5, im- 
bricate or valvate. Stamens 8 or 10; filaments filiform, glabrous. Ovary 2-5- 
parted, almost to the base ; style simple, rising from between the lobes, 
stigma capitate ; cells 2-ovuled. Qocci 2-5, truncate or rostrate; endocarp 
separating. Testa smooth, black, shining. 
A very large Australian genus, not found elsewhere. 
1. P. nudum. Hook. Ic. PI. t. 568 ; — FI' N. Z. i. 44. A shrub or small 
tree, 12-15 ft. high, everywhere glabrous; branches very slender. Leaves 
alternate, l-l^in. long, spreading, linear-oblong or narrow oblong-lanceo- 
late, obtuse, obscurely'firenate, narrowed below into very short petioles, coria- 
ceous, paler and dotted below. Flowers in terminal many-flowered corymbs, 
whitish, i— | in. diam., on pedicels -}—} in. long. Calyx very small, 5-lobed. 
Petals 5, lineal - , obtuse, with narrowly overlapping margins. Cocci -g- in. 
long, obtusely rhomboidal, compressed, wrinkled, often only one ripens, split- 
ting down the front and back into 2 valves. 
Northern Island : Bay of Islands, A. Cunningham ; east coast, Edgerley, Cohns o ; 
Auckland, Sinclair. Exceedingly closely allied to the Queensland P. elatius, F. Muell., 
hut the flowers are larger, the petals longer, the corymbs more flattened, and the leaves taper 
less to the base ; they may prove to be local forms of one species. 
2. MELICOPE, Foist. 
Glabrous shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple or compound, pel- 
lucid-dotted. Flowers in axillary many- or few-flowered cymes, more or less 
unisexual. — Sepals 4, deciduous or persistent. Petals 4, sessile, spreading, 
valvate or imbricate, with inflexed tips. Stamens 8 ; filaments subulate. 
Ovary 4-lobed, 4 -celled ; style 1, or 4 coalescing into 1, from between the 
lobes, stigma capitate ; cells 2-ovuled. Cocci 1—4, spreading, free ; endocarp 
separating. Testa shining; albumen abundant; embryo slightly curved. 
A Pacific Island genus, very variable in habit, which does not extend westward into Aus- 
tralia. The two New Zealand species are extremely dissimilar in habit. 
Leaves opposite, 3-foliolate . . . . , 1. M ternata. 
Leaves alternate or fascicled, 1-foliolate 2. M. simplex. 
