95 
1895.] G. King— Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 
reaching the apex of the cavity). Style simple or 0, rarely divided; 
stigma 1 rarely 2, entire or lobed; ovules 1-5, pendulous from the apex 
of a minute free central placenta, or from the side or apex of the ovarian 
cavity; funicle (or placenta ?) often dilated into a thickened process 
above the ovule. Fruit drupaceous or dry, indehiscent, 1- rarely 2-ceIl- 
ed, 1- rarely 2-seeded, free, or more or less adnate to the calyx-tube and 
disk. Seed pendulous; albumen fleshy, entire or lobed, rarely 0; radicle 
superior; cotyledons leafy, flat or folded, rarely fleshy.— Distrib. Genera 
about 45, species about 220, widely distributed through the Tropics of 
both hemispheres. 
The Olacinese are rather an assemblage of plants than a Natural Order. The 
solitary character which is common to all the species included under the title is 
pendulous ovulation ; and even that character is obscured by the fact that, in a 
number of the genera, the ovules are pendulous from the apex of a minute free 
central placenta which does not grow as the pistil developes, so that the seeds are 
erect in the fruit and have the appearance of originating from a basal placenta. 
In the remaining genera, both ovules and seeds are unmistakably pendulous from 
the apex, or from near the apex, of the cavities of the ovary and fruit. The 
majority of the genera have hypogynous stamens and superior fruit. But in Ery- 
thropalum the stamens are perigynous and the fruit is inferior ; while Cansjera and 
Lepionurus have their stamens perigynous in the flower, but the fruit (from the 
development of the fertilized pistil in a downward direction) is most distinctly in¬ 
ferior. In by far the greater majority of the species the stamens are free from 
each other, or, at the most, are slightly coherent by their bases : but in Harmandia 
the sessile anthers are attached near the mouth of a fleshy staminal tube like that 
found in Meliacese; and this tube, in an anantherous condition, is found in the pistil¬ 
late flowers. By far the greater number of the genera have both calyx and corolla ; 
but in Cansjera and Lepionurus the perianth is single, and in Phytocrene and Miquelia 
the organs which take the place of the outer whorl of the flower appear to be 
rather bracts than a true calyx. In most of the genera the petals are really free 
from each other; for, although many of them cohere by their edges for a time, they 
ultimately become separate; while in a smaller number there is genuine cohesion 
near their bases. In Harmandia however the corolla is gamopetalous and urceolate 
at all times and its texture is fleshy. 
All the genera treated of below are woody except Cardiopteris which is her¬ 
baceous, and which moreover has milky juice. And all the genera have alternate 
leaves except Ctenolophon in which the leaves are opposite. The whole order ap¬ 
pears to me to be in want of revision : and the study of the species described below 
leads me to incline to the opinion that several of the sub-tribes would be better 
treated as distinct natural orders; while one ( Opiliese) might be transferred to 
Santalaceas . 
Fruit drupaceous : Stigma 1. 
Ovules pendulous from the apex of a minute 
axile placenta ; seed spuriously erect. 
Dichlamydeous, S : fruit superior. 
Sub-Tribe I.— Olacese. Stamens aniso- 
