Sapindace&.\ 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
85 
The genus Dodonsea exhibits, in the permanent marginal coherence of the septa with either 
column or valves or both, such modifications as are not usually to be found in genera with a similarly 
constructed fruit. In the majority of the species the navicular valves separate from the septa, to the 
margin of which they are with their edges originally adnate; the dissepiment thus remains standing, 
forming wings to the column; in these instances it neither separates into plates. The species amongst 
those, of which the ripe fruits are contained in our collection, responding to the above character are:— 
D. viscosa, L.; D. lobulata, F. M.; D. cuneata, Fudge; D. triquetra, Wendl.; D. triangularis, Li/ndl.; 
D. ceratocarpa, Endl.; D. deflexa, F. M.; D. acerosa, Lindl.; D. pinifolia, Miq.; D. hexandra, F. M.; 
D. hirtella, Miq.; D. vestita, Hook; D. humilis, Endl; D. oxyptera, F. M.; D. stenozyga, F. M.; 
D. adenophora, Miq.; D. foliolosa, F. M. (D. multijuga, F. M., Fragm. Phyt. Aust. i. 219, non Don); 
D. polyzyga, F. M. ; and D. leptozyga, F. M. 
In fewer instances the septa separate from the column, and remain permanently connate at their 
margin with the valves, separate with truly septicidal dehiscence into two plates, forming thereby the 
axillary part of carpels, which at first cohere and afterwards secede, carrying when falling with them 
the seed, winch finally escape through the fissure along the axillary edge of the carpels. The columna 
and funicles in this instance alone remain standing. D. bursarifolia, B. & M., and seemingly also 
D. platyptera, F. M., and D. stenophylla, F. M., belong to this series. In a third modification of the 
opening of the fruit, winch has been only observed in D. physocarpa, the septa seem to separate 
neither distinctly from the valves nor from the column; the membranous valves, it appears, remain 
persistent, the seeds being shed by irregular ruptures of the tender valves. 
Dodonsea viscosa, Linne, Suppl . 218; J. Hook. FI. F. Zeal. i. 38; FI. Tasm. i. 55; D. aspleni- 
folia, Fudge in Transact. Linn. Soc. xi. 296, t. 20; D. oblongifolia, Link, Enum. i. 381; Dot. Peg. 1051 ; 
D. attenuata, A. Cunn. in Field's Few South Wales , 353; Dot. Mag. 2860; D. conferta, Don, Gen. Syst. 
Diclilam. Plants, i. 674; Scldcchten. IAnncea, 1852, 655; D. umbellata, Don, l. c.; D. Kingii, Don, l. c.; 
D. longipes, Don, l. c.; D. Preissiana, Miq. in Lehn. PI. Preiss . i. 226; F. M. Fragm. Pkytogr. Austr. 
i. 72. 
Viscid; leaves subcliartaceoiis, lanceolate or ovate- or linear- or spathulate-lanceolate or oblong- or 
ovate-cuneate, entire or repand or remotely or obscurely denticulated, rarely pinnate with linear-lanceolate 
almost entire or incised racliis and few r or many lanceolate flat leaflets; fiomers racemose, corymbose or panicu¬ 
late, mostly dioecious ; sepals generally 4,- lanceolate or lanceolate-ovate, about as long as the ovate-oblong 
anthers ; filaments very short; style not much elongated; capsule generally three-valved; valves winged 
from the summit to the base, separating from the septa; wings rounded-blunt on both extremities, about as 
broad as the valves; dissepiments persistent with the columna, dimidiate-ovate or dimidiate-lanceolate; seeds 
generally opaque, gradually compressed towards the margin ; cotyledons considerably longer than the radicle. 
On rocky scrubby places, particularly on the banks of watercourses, also on stony or sandy localities 
on ranges and in the desert; very widely and copiously distributed through Victoria and most other parts of 
extratropical Australia, restricted in tropical Australia to the eastern tracts; inhabiting also parts of India, 
Africa, America and the Pacific islands, never advancing to cold regions, yet occurring far south in 
Tasmania and New Zealand. 
A plant variable in the same degree as it accommodates itself’ to varied localities and climatic influences, 
sometimes forming a large erect shrub or diminutive tree, attaining a height of 16 feet, sometimes in very 
exposed localities remaining of depressed growth, exuding in all parts, particularly in youth, a more or less 
copious viscidity, w T hich imparts to the plant a varnished appearance. Branchlets straight, flexuose or 
crooked, faintly or distinctly angnftr particularly towards the summit, cylindrical in their lower portion, 
occasionally slightly do'wny. Leaves assuming forms of remarkable discrepancy, tapering gradually to the 
