90 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[. Sapindacece . 
HETERODENDRON. 
Desfont. in Memoir, du Museum d 1 Hist. Natur. iv. 8, t. 3. 
Flowers bisexual. Calyx persistent, irregularly short-toothed or truncate, bursting on one side. 
Petals wanting. Stamens 6-15, indefinite, forming one row. Filaments short, inserted on the surface 
of a small adnate circular hardly crenulate disk. Anthers basifixed, two-celled, bursting lengthwise. 
Styles very short, connate into one. Stigmas minute, truncate. Ovary 2—4-celled, supported by a 
very short gynoj)hor. Ovules solitary at the base of each cell. Capsule somewhat woody or thiek- 
crustaceous, consisting of 2—4 at their inner angle connate valveless irregularly bursting often only 
partially developed carpels. Seeds exalbuminous, turgid. Arillus large , fleshy. Testa thin-crustaceous. 
Cotyledons thick, flexuose. Radicle short, pointed. 
Shrubs or small trees inhabiting tropical eastern and extratropical Australia, bearing habitually 
resemblance to Stylobasium and Cneorum. Leaves chartaceous or thin-coriaceous, alternate or fasci¬ 
culate, simple, quite entire or partially few- and sharp-toothed, finely penninerved. Flowers axillary 
and terminal, collected into panicles, racemes or cormybs, rarely solitary. Capsule smooth, wingless, 
with roundish cells. Seeds shining. Arillus bright-red.— Lam. Encycl. t. 959 ; Kunth in Annal. 
Scienc . Natur. ii. 365 ; Webb in Hook. Loud. Journ. of Bot. i. 255 ; F. M. in Hook. Kevj. Misc. ix 
197. 
The generic character of the embryo has been solely obtained from H. diversifolium. 
Desfontaines, in discussing the affinity of Heterodendron, compared it to Cneorum and Styloba¬ 
sium. Candolle (Prodr. ii. 92) and Endlicher (Gen. 1141) adopt this view. Webb, when establishing 
for Cneorum a separate order, removed it from Cneorese. Planchon (in Mitch. Trop. Austr. p. 398) 
places it judiciously amongst Sajoindaceae. Its affinity to Spanoghea (an Indian and East Australian 
genus) is close in the extreme, the discriminating generic characters of the latter being reduced to a 
calyx with fewer and larger teeth and to pinnate leaves. 
Stylobasium, a pliytolaccaceous genus, referred to Chrysobalaneae by previous observers, is more 
in aspect than in similarity of structure allied to Heterodendron. It is neither an East Australian 
genus, the typical species, Stylobasium spathulatum, occurring towards Sharks Bay, according to 
Mr. Oldfield's observations, and unquestionably was found in Baudin's Expedition on the “ Baie des 
Chiens marins,” where many plants occur, which like Stylobasium spathulatum are found also on the 
Murchison River. Turpin s drawing (in Mem. du Musdum, v. t. 2) represents the carpel in figs. 6 and 
9 two-seeded. Stylobasium lineare (Macrostigma Australe, Hook. Icon. 412), which extends to near 
Sharks Bay, shows a one-seeded carpel, although the ovary according to Hooker is biovulate. The fruit 
is dry, crustaceous and winkled. The seed is affixed to the base of the cell'; the testa membranous, 
and the albumen, if not entirely absent, is but scantily developed, as far as could be ascertained from 
seeds in a shrivelled state. The embryo is arcuate, with an inferior radicle, which is about half as long 
as the almost flat cuneate-ovate cotyledons; the latter face with their sides the radicle, not with their 
edge. The external resemblance of Stylobasium to Gyrostemonoid genera is striking, with v r hicli the 
plant participates also in glaucescence. 
Heterodendron oleifolium, Desfont. in Memoir, du Mus. cPIIist. Nat. iv. 8, t. 3; F. M. Report 
on Babbage's Plants, p . 7. 
Leaves narrow- or lanceolate-oblongs or linear-lanceolate, ahvays entire; ovary generally four-celled; 
carpels very turgid, nearly globose, normally quaternate. 
