Tas. 6608. 
STERCULIA (BRACHYCHITON) DISCOLOR. 
Native of Eastern Australia. 
Nat. Ord. SrercurracexZ.—Tribe STERCULIEE. 
Genus Srercunta, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Pl. Gen. vol. i. p. 217.) 
Srercurta (Brachychiton) discolor ; arbor ramulis foliisque subtus incano-tomen- 
tellis v. puberulis, foliis ambitu orbiculatis basi late cordatis v. 2-lobis 
sinu angusto 5-7-gonis v. lobis totidem brevibus acutis v. acuminatis 
membranaceis supra glabris, floribus spicatim paniculatis 2-3-nis 2-pollicaribus 
sessilibus roseis, calyce infundibulari-campanulato dense stellatim tomentoso 
ad medium 6-fido lobis erectis ovato-lanceolatis acutis marginibus tenuibus 
glabris longe induplicatis, folliculis breviter stipitatis acuminatis intus et extus 
hirsuto-tomentosis, seminibus tomentosis. 
S. discolor, Benth. Fl. Austral. vol. i. p. 228. 
Bracuycurton discolor, F. Muell. Fragment. vol. i. p. 1. 
Amongst the most curious features of the Australian 
vegetation are the species of a section of Sterculia which 
is endemic in Australia. All of them have remarkably 
short, stout, and often deformed trunks, which in the case 
of the Bottle tree, S. rupestris, is contracted at the top and. 
bottom, and swelling out in the middle, rudely resembles 
some form of flask or bottle. This section has been 
erected into a genus, distinguished from Sterculia by the 
tomentose inner surface of the fruit, and of the outer 
coat of the seed, together with the radicle of the embryo 
being placed next to the hilum of the seed. In the 
“Genera Plantarum” the uncertainty of these characters 
in the genus, and other considerations, led to the abandon- 
ment of Brachychiton (together with many others founded 
on similarly unstable characters), and the referring back 
all its species to the old Linnean genus Sterculia, with 
which they agree entirely in habit, &c. 
S. discolor is a native of Eastern Australia, from the 
Clarence and Richmond rivers in New South Wales, north- 
FEBRUARY lst, 1882. 
