89 
No. 55. 
Owenia acidula, f.v.m. 
The Gruie or Colane. 
(Natural Order MELIACE^E.) 
Botanical description.— Genus, Owenia , F. Muell. 
Sejjals, 5, short, orbicular, much imbricate. 
Petals, 5, imbricate in the bud. 
Staminal tube short or long, with 10 entire or 2-lobed teeth; anthers protruding between the 
teeth. 
Disc small, annular or not distinct from the ovary. 
Ovary 3- or 4-celled (or, in one species, 12-celled), with 1 ovule in each cell; style rather thick ; 
stigma globular or conical, entire or lobed, on a disc-like expansion of the summit of the 
style. 
Drupe globular, the epicarp more or less succulent, putamen thick, woody or bony, rugose outside, 
2- to 4-celled (or, in one species, 12-celled). 
Seeds solitary in each cell, the outer coating spongy, the hilum broad lateral ; cotyledons oblong, 
thick. 
Trees, with the juice often (perhaps always) milky; the young shoots often viscous or gummy. 
Leaves pinnate. 
Flowers small, in axillary panicles. 
Fruits rather acid ; eaten by the aborigines. 
Botanical description.— Species, Owenia acidula , F. Muell., in Hooker’s Kew 
Journ. ix, 304, and Fragm. iii, 14. 
A small or moderate-sized tree ; glabrous, with the young shoots glutinous. 
Leaves crowded at the ends of the often pendulous branches ; leaflets from 9 to nearly 30, linear- 
lanceolate, acute, or mucronate, 1 to inches long, oblique, the midrib prominent under¬ 
neath, but otherwise almost nerveless; the common petiole 3 to G inches long. 
Panicles narrow, shorter than the leaves. 
Flowers nearly sessile, in clusters, or on short branches of the panicle. 
Sepals about 1 line long. 
Petals about 2 lines. 
Teeth of the staminal tube subulate, but more or less connected by an undulate cremate or almost 
fringed membrane. 
Disc small, annular. 
Ovary 3-celled. 
Drupe \ to 1 inch, or rather more, in diameter, said to resemble a russet apple ;* the epicarp 
pulpy, of a rich crimson ; putamen very hard.—(B.F1. i, 385.) 
Taken from Mitchell, but not a very good description ; it is like a plum, but more spherical, or a nectarine. 
