STERCULIACEAE. 275 



oblong to oblaneeolate, 8-15 cm. long, mostly acute or acuminate at the apex 

 and narrowed at the base ; flowers in many axillary clusters, often appearing 

 before the leaves; pedicels 4-6 cm. long; calyx obconic, about 1.5 cm. long; 

 petals about 3 cm. long, about as long as the stamens; stigma capitate; 

 capsule oblong, woody, 8-12 cm. long. 



Waste-lands, spontaneous after cultivation, New Providence, near Nassau; 

 planted for shade and for ornament : Cuba to St. Jan and Barbadoes ; northern 

 South America ; Old World tropics. Silk-cottux Ti;i:k. 



Family 4. STERCULIACEAE H.B.K. 



Chocolate Family. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees, with alternate, often stellate-pubescent leaves, 

 the flowers regular, mostly perfect, in a few genera polygamous or uni- 

 sexual, clustered or rarely solitary, usually axillary. Calyx deeply 5-cleft, 

 usually persistent, the lobes or sepals valvate. Petals 5, hypogynous, or 

 wanting. Stamens 5 or more; filaments more or less united below into a 

 cup or tube; anthers mostly 2-celled, extrorse; staminodia present in some 

 genera. Ovary superior, 2-5-eelled, or sometimes monoearpellary ; styles 

 usually as many as the ovary-cavities, distinct or more or less united. 

 Fruit mostly capsular or follicular, rarely indehiscent. Seeds various, the 

 cotyledons commonly' foliaceous. About 45 genera and over 600 species, 

 mostly tropical. 



Petals with flat blades. 



Gynoeciurn of 5 united carpels. 



Fruit of 5 dehiscent follicles. 1. Helictcres. 



Capsule pyramidal or fruit 5-coccous. 



Fruit a 5-angled capsule. 2. Moluchia. 



Fruit 5-coccous. 3. Melochia. 



Gynoeciurn of a single carpel. 4. Waltheria. 



Petals with hooded blades; capsule 5-celled, muricate. 5. Ayenia. 



1. HELICTERES L. Sp. PI. 963. 1753. 

 Pubescent shrubs or trees, the pubescence stellate or of branched hairs, 

 with broad leaves and axillary or terminal, clustered or solitary flowers, the 

 bractlets small, or distant from the calyx. Calyx tubular, 5-cleft or 5-toothed, 

 somewhat 2-lipped. Petals 5, clawed. Stamen-column slender, elongated, bear- 

 ing 5 or 10 sessile or short-stalked anthers; anther-sacs divergent or confluent. 

 Ovary borne within the ring of stamens, 5-celled, 5-lobed, the cells many-ovuled; 

 style 5, or united into 1; stigma small, capitate. Carpels distinct at maturity, 

 twisted or straight, follicular, dehiscent along the ventral suture, many-seeded. 

 Seeds warty or smooth; endosperm little; cotyledons foliaceous. [Greek, re- 

 ferring to the coiled carpels of some species. | Thirty species or more, of 

 tropical distribution. Type species: Helictcres Isora L. 



Capsule glabrous; carpels straight. 1. H. arm' triloba, 



Capsule lanate; carpels twisted into a spiral. 2. H. jamatcetuis. 



I 

 ^ 1. Helicteres semitriloba P>3rtero; DC. Prodr. 1: 476. 1S24. 



A branched shrub 1-3 in. high, rarely a small tree up to 5 in. high, the 

 young twigs, petioles, lower leaf-surfaces, pedicels, calyx and ovary densely 

 stellate-tomentulose. Leaves broadly ovate to orbicular, subeoriaccous, 3-S cm. 

 long, undulate-dentate or somewhat 3-lobed, obtuse or acute at the apex, 

 cordate or truncate at the base, becoming glabrous above, the petiole as long 

 as the blade or shorter; flowers usually numerous in terminal compound corymbs; 



