P8 thalamiflora;. 



ORDER XXV. BOMBACE^. 



Calycine sepals 5, cohering in a campaniilate or 

 cylindrical tube, either truncated or with 5 divisions, 

 naked or involucelled with a few minute bracteoles 

 at the base. Petals 5, regular; or, when the inside 

 of the calyx is coloured, none. Stamens 5, 10, 15, or 

 more : filaments cohering at the base into a tube, 

 which is soldered to the tube formed by the base of 

 the petals, divided at the apex into 5 parcels, each of 

 which is 1- or poly-antherous : anthers 1 -celled, lin- 

 ear, reniform or anfractuose. Ovary of 5, rarely 10, 

 carpels : styles of the same number as the carpels. 

 Fruit variable : seeds generally wrapped in wool, or 

 pulp ; exalbuminose with the cotyledons corrugated 

 or convoluted, or albuminose with the cotyledons 

 plain. 



Trees or shrubs, natives of the Tropics. Leaves alternate, 

 petiolate, bi-stipulated : pubescence stellated. 



The Cotton-tree tribe are peculiar to the hottest parts of the 

 globe. Like the Mallow tribe, from which they can with dif- 

 ficulty be separated, they abound in a mucilaginous juice, and 

 have no known deleterious property. 



I. Helicteres. 



Calyx tubulose, subquinquefid. Petals 5, ligulato- 

 unguiculated subdentate towards the apex. Stamens 

 5, 10, or 15, monadelphous for some distance, with a 

 multifid urceole at the apex, with some of them ste- 

 rile. Ovary on a long stipe : styles 5, concrete at 

 the base. Carpels 5, one-celled, co-seeded, internally 

 dehiscent, frequently twisted into a regular spire, 

 sometimes straight. Seeds exalbuminose, cotyledons 

 spirally convoluted. — De Cand. 



Name, from jX/^, a screio, hence eX/xTy}^, any thing wound round 

 or coiled; applied to this genus, from the manner in which 

 the fruit is twisted. 



