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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order XIV. RutaceÆ.]

Trees or shrubs, very rarely herbs, plentifully supplied with pellucid glands filled with an aromatic or pungent essential oil. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple or compound, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual. Calyx 4–5-lobed or divided into as many free sepals, imbricate. Petals the same number, hypogynous or slightly perigynous, imbricate or valvate. Stamens usually free, hypogynous, as many or twice as many as the petals, rarely more numerous; anthers 2-celled, versatile. Disc placed between the stamens and ovary, usually annular, entire or lobed or crenate. Ovary of 4–5 free or connate carpels; styles as many, free at the base, united above; ovules usually 2 in each carpel. Fruit very various, sometimes of 4–5 2-valved cocci, or a berry or drupe, rarely a capsule with loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds generally solitary in each cell; albumen fleshy or wanting; embryo large, straight or curved, radicle superior.

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As defined by Hooker and Bentham in the "Genera Plantarum," this is a large and heteromorphous order, comprising between 80 and 90 genera and nearly 700 species. Most of the species are either tropical or inhabit South Africa or Australia. They are comparatively rare in the north temperate zone. The chief characteristic of the order is the presence of an essential oil, which is usually abundant in the leaves and young growing parts, often giving them an aromatic odour and bitter or pungent taste. The orange, lemon, citron, lime, &c., are the chief economic species. The two New Zealand genera are also found in Australia, and Melicope extends into the Pacific islands as well.

Leaves simple, petiole terete. Flowers 5-merous 1. Phebalium.
Leaves compound, or if simple with the petioles winged. Flowers 4-merous 2. Melicope.