Meliaceae
P. ABDULLA
Stewart Herbarium, Gordon College, Rawalpindi.
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, pinnately compound; leaf-lets opposite to alternate. Flowers in axillary, terminal or sub-terminal panicles; bisexual or plants polygamodioecious. Sepals 3-6, connate at the base or free. Petals 3-6, usually free. Stamens 3-12; filaments united, sometimes free. Disc usually present. Ovary (1) -2-5 ( — 6)—locular; placentation axile with 1-2, rarely more ovules in each locule. Fruit a drupe, berry or capsule. Seeds 1-many, sometimes winged.
A family of about 50 genera and 1400 species; mainly tropical; distributed in W. Africa, America, W. Indies, Burma, E. Australia, W. Pakistan and India.
Represented in W. Pakistan by 5 genera and about 7 species. The occur¬rance of three additional cultivated genera, Amoora, Walsura and Choloroxylon is doubtful.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under P.L. 480, to Dr. N.K.B.Robson for helping us in looking up the Linnean Types, and to Dr. R.R. Stewart for his valuable suggestions.
