Dysoxylum .] 
XV. MELIACEiE. 
41 
splitting down the middle of the cells ; valves with the septa on their faces. 
Seeds large, arillate or naked, oblong; hilum broad, ventral; testa brown, 
shining ; cotyledons very large ; plumule included or exserted. 
A large tropical Asiatic, Australian, and Pacific Island genus of timber and forest trees. 
1. D. spectabile, Iiook.f.; — Hartighsia spectabilis, A. Juss. ; — FI. N. Z. 
i. 39. A large tree, 40-50 ft. high. Leaves 1 ft. or more long, pinnate; 
leaflets about 4 pairs, alternate, petioled, oblong-obovate, acute, 3-6 in. long, 
quite glabrous, entire, oblique at the base, narrowed into the terete petiole. 
Panicles 8-12 in. long, usually growing from the trunk, sparingly branched, 
ebracteate. Flowers shortly pedicelled, \ in. broad. Calyx lobes very small, 
ciliate. Petals linear, patent, obtuse. Staminal tube cylindric, fleshy, cre- 
nate ; anthers quite included, sessile on thickened prominences. Style very 
slender ; stigma disciform. Capsule obovate, pendulous, 1 in. long. Aril 
scarlet. — Hook. Ic. PI. t. 616 and 617. 
Northern Island : Bay of Islands, A. Cunningham, etc.; east coast, Banks and So- 
lander. Middle Island, Forster. Mr. Bidwill observes that the leaves are bitter, and 
used for hops, and to make a stomachic infusion. 
Order XVI. OLACINE.®. 
Shrubs or trees. Leaves simple, alternate, rarely opposite, exstipulate. 
Flowers regular, axillary or terminal, hermaphrodite or unisexual. — Calyx 
small, 4 or 5-toothed -lobed or -parted. Petals 4 or 5, free or coalescing into a 
tube, valvate? Stamens 4 or 5, hypogynous (or at the base of a disk). Ovary 
free, 1- or imperfectly 3-5 -celled ; style long or short, stigma often lobed ; 
ovules 1-3 collaterally pendulous from below the top of the cell, or from the 
top of a central erect free placenta. Fruit usually a 1-celled, 1-seeded, dry 
or fleshy drupe. Seed pendulous, testa very thin ; albumen copious, fleshy; 
embryo minute, terete. 
A large tropical Order, containing many genera of very various characters not included in 
the above description, often extremely difficult of determination, on account of their minute 
flowers, and almost microscopic ovaries and ovules. The only New Zealand genus is also a 
native of Norfolk Island. 
1. PENNANTIA, Forst. 
Trees. Leaves alternate, entire or toothed. Cymes many-flowered. Flowers 
polygamous. — Calyx minute, 5-toothed. Petals 5, valvate. Stamens 5, hypo- 
gynous ; filaments filiform, free, flattened at the base ; anthers versatile. 
Ovary oblong, obscurely trigonous, 1-celled; stigma almost sessile, discoid, 
3-lobed; ovule 1, pendulous below the top of the cell. Drupe small, fleshy; 
stone crustaceous, obtusely 3-gonous, grooved on one face, and perforated on 
that face below the apex ; a flattened cord passes up the groove, enters the 
cell by the foramen, and bears the pendulous seed at its tip. 
1. P. corymbosa, Forst. ; — FI. N. Z. i. 35. t. 12. A small, very grace- 
ful tree, covered with white sweet-smelling flowers, 20-30 ft. high ; bark 
whitish ; wood brittle ; twigs and young cymes pubescent. Leaves on short 
petioles, 1-3 in. long, ovate obovate or oblong, obtuse, sinuate or toothed. 
