Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order XV. Meliaceæ.]

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.

An order of about 37 genera and 300 species, almost wholly 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 (Swietenia), satinwood (Chloroxylon), and the so-called Australian cedar (Cedrela australis). The single New Zealand species belongs to a genus widely distributed in eastern tropical Asia.