214 xxv. MALVACEAE (masters). [Eriodendron. 



Represented in Africa by a single species, which is also found in the E. and W. Indies. 



1. E. anfractuostmi, DC. Prod. i. 479. A. large tree spiny when 

 young; trunk dilated at the base. Branches verticillate. Leafstalks 4-6 

 in. long, terminating in a small, suborbicular disk from which proceed in a 

 digitate manner 7 shortly stalked, lanceolate, acuminate, undulate leaflets, 

 smooth on both surfaces, 4-6 in. long, 1-1^ in. wide. Calyx £ in. long, 

 leathery, cup-shaped, with 5 shallow rounded lobes. Corolla three or four 

 times the length of the calyx. Petals oblong, obtuse, rose-coloured, villous 

 outside, glabrous within. Stamens united into 5 bundles, each bearing 3 

 sinuous anthers. Capsule ovate-oblong, 5-8 in. long, 5-valved, many-seeded. 

 Seeds woolly. — Bombax pentandrum, Linn. Sp. 959. B. guineense, Schum. 

 et Thonn. PI. Guin. 302. 



Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Perrottet ! Thonning. 



Lower Guinea. Congo, Smith ! 



This species occurs also in both the E. and the W. Indies. Thonning says his Bombax 

 guineense differs from B. "pentandrum in the branches, which do not spread at a right angle, 

 and in the paucity of spines. 



Order XXVI, STERCULIACE^ (by Dr. Maxwell T. Masters). 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual. Calyx usually persistent, 

 more or less deeply divided into 5 or rarely 3 or 4 valvate lobes, or rarely 

 splitting irregularly into 2 valves, still more rarely the sepals entirely 

 free. Petals 5, hypogynous, free or adhering to the staminal column, con- 

 torted-imbricate in the bud or small and scale-like or none. Stamens 

 usually united into a ring, a cup or a tube with 5 terminal teeth or lobes 

 (staminodia) alternating with or opposite to the petals, and 1 or more an- 

 thers sessile or stipitate (on distinct filaments) in each interval, the anthers 

 2-celled and opening outwards by longitudinal slits, or exceptionally, the an- 

 thers are numerous and the staminodia are wanting, or the stamens are 5, free 

 and alternate with the sepals or the anther-cells confluent or opening by ter- 

 minal pores. Ovary free, 2-5-celled, with the carpels more or less united, 

 rarely 10-12-celled or reduced'to a single carpel. Styles entire or divided into 

 as many branches as there are cells or rarely styles free, equal in number to 

 the cells. Fruit various. Seeds sometimes hairy but not cottony, sometimes 

 arillate ; testa coriaceous fibrous or membranous ; tegmen horny ; albumen 

 fleshy farinaceous or horny, entire or bipartite or none. Cotyledons flat or 

 folded, thin or fleshy, distinct or adherent to the biparted albumen. Radicle 

 short, near to or sometimes remote from the hilum. — Herbs shrubs or trees, the 

 toinentum or hairs stellate, rarely mixed with simple hairs. Leaves alternate 

 or exceptionally opposite, simple and pinnately or palmately nerved, entire 

 toothed or lobed or digitately compound. Stipules sometimes absent. 



A large Order, chiefly tropical, dispersed over the New and the Old World, and Australia. 



Tribe I. Sterculieee.— Flowers unisexual 'or polygamous. Calyx sometimes coloured. 

 Petals 0. Anthers 5-15, adnate, crowded at the extremity of a long column or a short 

 gynophore around the base of the ovary. 



Anthers crowded into a head. Seeds albuminous. 



