Tab. 7382. 

 sterculia austro-caledonica. 



Native of New Caledonia. 



Nat. Ord. Sterculiace,e. — Tribe Sterctjlie.b. 

 Genus Sterculia, Linn.; (Bentk. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 217.) 



Sterculta (Chrysodactylon) austro-caledonica ; trtmco subsimplici apice 

 foliifero, foliis glaberrimia longe-petiolatis junioribus ovato-cordatis 

 senioribus orbicularis ad medium palmatim 5-lobis lobis oblongis obtusis 

 integerrimia sinubus rotundatis, petiolo apice incrassato, panicula trunco 

 longe infra folia enata sessili thyrsiformi puberula, floribus parvis aroma- 

 ticis, calycis tubo brevi turbinato lobis patentibus ovatis apicibus incurvis 

 lobulatis, lobulis aureis, antheris 10 simplici serie annulatim confertia 

 sessilibus, carpellis maturis 5 oblongis crasse stipitatis polyspermia, 

 se minibus clavatis radicula hilo proxime. 



The very remarkable plant here figured will, I doubt 

 not, be regarded as the type of a genus, when the hetero- 

 geneous collection of materials now included under Ster- 

 culia shall have been critically studied. As with other 

 genera of unisexual trees with large leaves and fruits, 

 many of its species are very imperfectly known, and recent 

 collectors in tropical regions have added many to the 

 number of these since the period when Schott, Bndlicher 

 and Brown published the results of their studies of the 

 species known to them half a century ago. Schott in 1832 

 (Meletemata, p. 32) classified the number known to him 

 under thirteen genera. Endlicher about 1838 {Gen. Plant. 

 vol. i. p. 994) referred all but one of them back to 

 Sterculia, which he divided into ten sections. In 1844 

 Brown admitted ten genera, and lastly, Bentham in the 

 "Genera Plantarum" (vol. i. p. 217, 1862) proposed 

 eight sections of the genus, more or less in accordance 

 with those of Endlicher and the genera of Schott and 

 Brown. 



In as far as I know the genus, 8, austro-caledonica 



November 1st, 1894. 



