Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/135

Melicope.] Fl. t. 68; Students' Fl. 86. M. parvula, ''Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xx. (1887) 255. Astorganthus Huegelii, ''Endl. Cat. Hort. Vindob.'' ii. 196.





Trees or shrubs; wood often hard, coloured, odorous. Leaves alternate, usually pinnate, rarely simple, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, 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.

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. Disc tubular, sheathing the ovary. Ovary 3–5-celled; ovules usually 2 in each cell. Capsule globose or pyriform, coriaceous, 1–5-celled, loculicidally 2–5-valved. Seeds with or without an aril, large, oblong, exalbuminous; cotyledons very large.

1. D. spectabile, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 41.—A handsome 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, 3–7 in., 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,