Goodeniaceae
S. I. ALI
Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi.
Perennial herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or basal, simple, exstipulate. Flowers solitary, axillary or in cymes, racemes or spikes; bisexual, zygomorphic. Calyx usually 5-lobed. Corolla 5-lobed, valvate in bud. Stamens 5, epipetalous, free, alternating with corolla lobes; anthers free or connate in a ring round the style. Ovary bicarpellary, syncarpous, inferior or superior, l-2 loculed with axile or basal placentation; ovules l, 2 or many in each locule; style simple or 2-3 fid with a pollen cup under the stigma. Fruit a capsule, drupe or nut.
A family of 14 genera and about 300 species, distributed mainly in Australia, New Zealand and Polynesia and other tropical coasts. Represented by 1 genus and two species occurring mostly on the coastal sand dunes or sand hills in W. Pakistan.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under P.L. 480 and to Miss P. H. Halliday (kew) for kindly executing the illustration.
