92 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[■ Malpighiacecn. 
simple, seldom toothed or lobed, with frequently gland-hearing petioles. Flowers 
hermaphrodite or rarely polygamous; their disposition various. Petals yellow or red, 
sometimes white, hardly ever blue.— Adr. de Puss. in End!. Gen. 1057; Monograph, 
des Malpigh. 1813; Archiv. du Museum d’Eist. Natur. iii. 255, 611, t. i.-xxiii. 
No infallible characteristic separates Malpighiaceae from Sapindacese, although 
by collective notes the disquisition of the plants belonging to either order is readily 
effected. The Australian Malpighiacese hitherto known are besides Nitraria only a 
Kyssopterys, detected by Mr. Thozet near Bockliampton, Cadellia pentastylis (P. M. 
Fragm. Pliyt. Austr. ii. 26, t. xii.) from New England, and Tristellateia Australasica 
(A. Eich. Voy. d’Astrolab. ii. 38, t. 15) from North-Eastern Australia. 
k 
NITRARIA. 
IAnne , Gener. Plant. 602. 
Calyx 5- rarely 6-cleft, persistent, glandless. Petals 5 or rarely 6, hypogynous, alternate -with 
the divisions of the calyx, indexed at the margin and apex, tapering to the base, implicate-valvate in 
aestivation, deciduous. Stamens threefold the number of the petals. Filaments free, linear-subulate. 
Anthers two-celled, with introrse longitudinal dehiscence. Style short, thick. Stigmas 2-6, minute. 
Ovary 2-6-celled. Ovules solitaiy, pendulous. Drupe one-celled, with a deshy pericarp. Putamen 
bony, acuminate, scrobiculate, valvate above the middle. Seeds without albumen. Funicles elon¬ 
gated. Testa membranous. Embryo straight. Cotyledons elliptical, plane-convex. Radicle short, 
next to the hilum. 
Shrubs inhabiting sparingly the coasts and subsaline desert-tracts of South Europe, of Middle 
Asia, of the Orient, of extratropical northern and tropical Africa, and of extratropical and subtropical 
Australia. Branches not rarely spinescent. Leaves deshy, alternate or fasciculate, minutely stipulate. 
Flowers cymose, rarely solitary. Petals white. Fruit edible.— Pallas, Flor. Ross. i. t. 50 ; Lam. 
Encycl. t. 403 ; Garin, de Fruct. & Semin, t. 58 ; Andr. Repos, t. 529 ; Lodd. Boh Cabin, t. 1395 ; 
Endl. Gen. 1094; Lindl. Veg. Kingd. 389 ; Jaub. et Spach, Illustration. Plant. Orient, t. 293-295; 
Schnizl. Analys. t. 60. 
Nitraria Billardierii, Gand. Prodr. iii. 456. 
Leaves linear- or lanceolate- or cuneate-oblong-, entire; dowers spicate-cymose ; ovary 2-3 -celled; 
stigmas 2 or 3, deltoid-ovate, erect ; drupe ellipsoid-ovate, without angles. 
In saline tracts of the desert on the Murray and in other localities in the north-western part of the 
Colony of Victoria. Not rare on the Darling and Murrumbidgee plains and in the Colony of South Australia, 
where it occurs also on the coast, extending northward to the depressions around Lake Torrens; found 
farther on the Murchison River by Mr. A. Olddeld, distributed therefore in all likelihood through a great 
portion of the intervening country; according to Eyre along the Great Australian Bight. 
An amply expanding' shrub, 3— b feet high. Branches more or less divaricate or arched-reclined, in age 
black-brown. Branchlets at first angular, soon terete, often, as well as the leaves, peduncles, pedicels and 
calyces, clothed scantily or densely with very short grey somewhat silk-like downs. Stipules brown, mem¬ 
branous, glabrous, from a broad base oblique deltoid or lanceolate or lanceolate-subulate, long persistent, 
generally less than 1 line long. Leaves scattered or more frequently fasciculate, glaucous, succulent, J- 1 J 
inch long, 1J-3 lines broad, flat above, rather convex beneath, tapering to the base without distinct petioles. 
Cymes sessile or short pedunculate, frequently formed by two simple or compound divergent scorpoid flexuose 
