540 MELIACEAE. | Dysoxylum. 
Family LVI. MELIACEAE. 
Trees or shrubs; wood often hard, coloured, odorous. Leaves alternate, 
usually pinnate, rarely simple, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphro- 
dite, seldom unisexual. Calyx 4-5-lobed or -partite, usually imbricate. 
Petals 4-5, rarely more or 3 only, free or adnate to the lower part of the 
staminal tube, contorted imbricate or valvate. Stamens 8-10, seldom 
more or fewer; filaments united into a tube, rarely free; anthers generally 
sessile within the top of the tube. Disc within the staminal column, 
annular or tubular, free or connate with the ovary. Ovary generally free, 
3-5-celled ; style simple; ovules 2 in each cell, rarely more. Fruit usually 
a capsule, sometimes a berry, rarely drupaceous. Seeds often enclosed 
in an aril, with or without albumen. 
A family of about 40 genera and 600 species, almost w holly confined to the tropics, 
rare in temperate regions. Most of the species are more or less bitter and astringent. 
Some yield a valuable and durable timber, as the mahogany (Swvetenia), satinwood 
(Chloroxylon), and the so-called Australian cedar (Cedrela “qustralis). The single New 
Zealand species belongs to a genus widely distributed in eastern tropical Asia. 
DYSOXYLUM Blume. 14}. 
Large usually glabrous trees. Leaves simple, alternate, pinnate ; 
leaflets entire. Flowers in lax axillary panicles. Calyx small, 4-5-toothed 
-lobed or -partite, imbricate. Petals 4-5, linear-oblong, spreading, valvate. 
Staminal tube cylindrical, dentate or crenulate at the mouth ; anthers 
8-10, included. Dise tubular, sheathing the ovary. Ovary 3-5. celled ; 
ovules usually 2 in each cell. Capsule globose or paren, coriaceous, 
1-5-celled, loculicidally 2-5-valved. Seeds with or without an aril, large, 
oblong, exalbuminous ; cotyledons very large. 
A considerable genus of large forest-trees, best represented in tropical Asia and 
the Malay Archipelago, but with several species in Australia and the Pacific islands. 
The single New Zealand species is endemic. 
1. D. spectabils tied f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 41.—A hand- 
some round-headed tree 25-50 ft. high; trunk 1-3 ft. in diam. Leaves 
unequally pinnate, glabrous, 9-18 in. long ; leaflets 3-4 pairs, alternate, 
petioled, 3-7in., ovate-oblong or oblong-obovate, acute, oblique at the 
base, ‘undulate.  Panicles 6-18 in. long,” pendulous, usually springing 
from the trunk or branches far below the leaves, rarely axillary, sparingly 
branched. Flowers waxy-white, 14 in. diam., shortly pedicelled. Calyx- 
lobes small, ciliate. Petals 5, linear, spreading or recurved. Staminal 
tube cylindric, fleshy, crenate. Style slender, exserted beyond the staminal 
tube; stigma discoid. Capsule large, broadly obovoid, | in. long, 3—4- 
celled. aie 2 in each cell, enveloped in an orange aril—T. Kirk Forest 
Fl. (1889) tt. 64, 65; Students? Fl. (1899) 87; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 
(1906) 95. inane spectabilis A. Juss. wn Mens Mus. Par. xix (1830) 
228; A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 597; Raoul Choix (1846) 47; Hook. Ic. 
Plant. (1844) tt.,616, 6; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 39. Trichilia 
spectabilis Forst/f. Prodr. (1786) n. 188; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 306. 
NortH IsuanpD: hahaa from the North Cape southwards. SoutH ISLAND: 
Marlborough—Abundant in the Sounds, H. J. Matthews! J. H. Macmahon! Stephen 
Island, Cockayne. Nelson—D’Urville Island, 7. Kirk; Pepin Island, F. G. Gibbs! 
Ascends to 1500 ft. Kohekohe. May—July. 
Timber suitable for inlaying and furniture; leaves bitter and tonic. 
T- Th us) 97. 
