MELIACEiE. 
47 
Melia Azederach, Linn., a native of Tropical Asia, is commonly planted. Lilas 
de V Inde. 
A small tree, seen by Mr. Horne on the border of a swamp near the sea north of 
Port Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles, is most likely a Tricliilia ; but the specimen is too 
imperfect to be certain. It is glabrous in all its parts, with alternate imparipinnate 
leaves, membranous short- stalked oblong acute leaflets 2-3 inches long, the side ones 
oblique, flowers in axillary panicles shorter than the leaves, spreading pedicels 
in. long, a minute calyx with 5 deltoid teeth, 5 oblong obtuse petals £ inch long, a 
campanulate calyx-tube with 10 square emarginate teeth at the top with an anther 
to each, a cylindrical style, a 2-3 -celled ovary and large capitate stigma. 
Order XXYI. OLACINE^]. 
Flowers regular, in our genera hermaphrodite. Calyx minute, cam- 
panulate, truncate, or 4-5- toothed. Petals 4-5, lingulate, valvate. 
Stamens hypogynous, or adnate to the base of petals, as many or twice 
as many as the petals $ several in Olax anantherous (staminodes) ; 
anthers linear or oblong, dorsifixed or hasifixed, 2-celled, slitting down 
the side. Ovary 1-celled throughout or 3-celled at the base ; ovules 2-3, 
pendulous ; style produced or absent ; stigma capitate. Fruit a 1-seeded 
drupe, with a hard endocarp. Seed pendulous, mostly solitary ; 
albumen abundant. — Trees or shrubs with alternate entire exstipulate 
leaves ; flowers small, in axillary or terminal cymes, or panicles. 
Disturb. Hound the world in warm climates. Species 170. 
Stamens (including staminodes) twice as many as the petals. 
Staminodes many. Calyx truncate, accrescent 1. Olax. 
Staminodes 0. Calyx toothed, not accrescent 2. Ximenia. 
Stamens (without staminodes) as many as the petals .... 3. Apodytes. 
1. OLAX, Linn. 
Calyx truncate, campanulate, enlarging after the petals fall. Petals 
5, valvate, caducous. Stamens with staminodes 9-12, the 3 bearing 
anthers inserted between the petals and connecting them, the barren 
ones adnate to the petals. Ovary free, 1-celled or 3-celled at the base ; 
ovules 3, pendulous from a central placenta ; style entire ; stigma 
capitate. Fruit a drupe, half-included in the accrescent calyx. — Glabrous 
trees or shrubs, with alternate entire leaves and minute flowers in 
axillary racemes or corymbs. Distrib. Through the tropics of the Old 
World. Species 20-25. 
1. O. psittacorum, Vahl, Lnum. ii. 33. A shrub, glabrous through- 
out. Leaves alternate, short-petioled, 1-lf inch long, ovate or ovate- 
lanceolate, acute, moderately firm, pale green, 1-nerved. Flowers few, 
in axillary peduncled corymbs. Petals 5, whitish, united by the 
stamens. Stamens included. Staminodia filiform, adnate halfway up 
to tbe petals, marked at the base with a black blotch. Drupe larger 
than a pea, half immersed in the cup-shaped truncate calyx. Fissilia 
psittacorum, Lam. Encycl. t. 28 ; DC. Prod. i. 532. 
Mauritius, in the thick forests of Quartier Militaire, especially about Bois Cheri. 
Endemic. Bois Perroquets. 
2. XIMENIA, Linn. 
Calyx minute, spreading, persistent, with 4-5 not accrescent teeth. 
