ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 715 



III. Banksiance, with free, deciduous, linear stipules. IV. Bracteatce, 

 with adnate stipules, having fruits and prickles in infra-stipular pairs. 

 V. Microphi/lhe, like the last, but the fruit glabrous, with a thick green 

 pericarp. VI. Cinnamona, like the last, but the fruits red and glabrous, 

 with a thin pericarp. VII. SpinosissimtB, prickles very unequal, never 

 in stipular pairs. VIII. Gallicanm, like the last, but prickles slightly 

 unequal, with leaflets coriaceous and rugose. IX. Canince, prickles 

 equal, not in stipular pairs, leaves glabrous or slightly pubescent. 

 X. Villosm, like the last, but leaves very hairy. XI. Rubiginosm, like 

 the last, but leaves very glandular beneath. 



The geographical distribution briefly is as follows : — Five species 

 are found south of the Tropic of Cancer in elevated situations, two in 

 Abyssinia, one in the Neilgherries, and two in Mexico. There are six 

 geographical regions in the North Temperate Zone, each with a con- 

 siderable proportion of endemic species. 1. Europe, with 29 species. 

 2. Northern Asia with China and Japan, 26 species. 3. Western Asia, 

 with 18 species. 4. India, with 9 species. 5. Western North America 

 with the Rocky Mountains, 10 species, fi. Eastern North America, with 

 6 species. 



Mansonieae, a new Tribe of the Natural Order Sterculiacese.*- 

 D. Prain gives an account of a new genus from Burmah, Mansonia. 

 Its nearest ally is an African genus, Triplochiton, Schum., which has 

 been made the basis of a new natural order Triplochitonacere. The 

 order thus proposed is admittedly a member of the cohort Malvales ; 

 the peculiar characters on which its claim to ordinal rank is based are to 

 be found in the andrcecium, which consists of a ring of free stamens 

 inserted at the apex of a distinct gynophore, with a whorl of petaloid 

 hypogynous staminodia between the free stamens and the free carpels. 

 The andrcecium of Mansonia shares these peculiarities, but Mansonia 

 differs generally from Triplochiton because the calyx is spathaceous, not 

 regularly 5-lobed ; the petals are sessile, not clawed ; the stamens are 

 definite, not indefinite in number ; and the staminodia are valvate, not 

 contorted-imbricate. 



The two genera taken together constitute a very natural group, 

 belonging to the Malvales. There is nothing in the accessory whorls to 

 prevent this group being placed in any of the already recognised orders 

 of that cohort ; the gynophore and its relationship to the organs inserted 

 on it, however, exclude Malvaceae, while the staminodia suggest Ster- 

 culiaceae rather than Tiliacese. Finally, the gyna3cium makes it practi- 

 cally certain that Sterculiaceffi is the order to which the group belongs. 

 The differential characters relied on by Schumann in proposing his new 

 order do, however, exclude the group from every one of the hitherto 

 recognised tribes of Sterculiaceas ; a new tribe is consequently proposed 

 for the accommodation of the two genera Triplochiton and Mansonia. 



The name of this new tribe, under ordinary circumstances, seeing 

 that it is equivalent to Schumann's order, would have been Triplochi- 

 toneae. There are, however, two genera with the same name — 

 Triplochiton. The older of the two, Triplochiton Alef., is for the 



* Joum. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxvii. (1905) pp. 250-63 (1 pi.)- 



