FLORA OF ADEN. 
143 
XIII— MELIACEJE. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, usually pinnate ; leaves 
or leaflets usually entire. 
Flowers regular, usually hermaphrodite, in terminal or axillary 
panicles. Calyx usually small, 4- 5-fid or— -partite, imbricate, rarely 
valvate. Petals 4— 6 (rarely 3 — 7), sometimes free and contorted or 
imbricate, sometimes connate or adnate to the staminal tube and 
valvate. Stamens 4 — 10, generally 8 — 10 (very rarely more) , inserted 
with the petals outside of the base of a hypogynous disk ; filaments 
united by their margins into a more or less complete tube which is 
entire, toothed or variously Iaciniate, rarely free ; anthers introrse or 
versatile, erect, usually sessile on the staminal tube, included or exserted, 
2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally ; connective sometimes produced. 
Disk various, usually annular, or tubular, and sheathing, free or adnate 
to the ovary or staminal tube, or 0. Ovary usually free, 2 — 5-celled; 
ovules 1—2 (rarely more) in each cell, collateral or superposed ; raphe 
ventral, micropyle superior; style simple; stigma disciform or capitate. 
Fruit capsular, baccate or drupaceous. Seeds exalbuminous or with 
fleshy albumen, winged or not ; embryo flat; hilum usually ventral; 
cotyledons fleshy. 
Genera 37 ; species about 300. 
Distribution: — Frequent in the warm regions of Asia and America, 
rarer in Africa. 
Seeds albuminous ; cotyledons foliaceous .... 1. Melia 
Seeds exulbuminous ; cotyledons thick ..... 2. Azadirachfca. 
The two species described below are not indigenous in the Aden 
territory. 
1. Melia Linn. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simply or 2-3-pinnate with an 
odd one, the young ones often stellately tomentose ; leaflets toothed, 
serrate or entire. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, elongate, in large many-flowered axillary 
much-branched panicles. Calyx 5 — 6 partite, imbricate. Petals 5— 6, 
free, much exceeding the calyx. Staminal tube a little shorter than the 
petals, Iaciniate the mouth dilated; anthers 10, within the staminal 
tube at its apex, sessile between its laciniae, erect. Disk annular. Ovary 
5 — 8-cellcd ; cells opposite the sepals ; ovules 2 in each cell, superposed ; 
style cylindric, much exceeding the ovary ; stigma capitate. 
Drupe subfleshy ; endocarp woody ; cells 1-seeded. Seeds pendulous, 
elliptic ; testa crustaceous ; albumen fleshy or scanty ; cotyledons 
foliaceous; radicle terete, superior. 
F 
