250 Sterculiaceae 



yellowish-tomentose throughout; leaves short-petioled, about 

 2.5 cm. long, reniform, oblique at the base, serrate or crenate; 

 flowers axillary, solitary or clustered, on slender at length reflexed 

 pedicels; bractlets 1 or 2, linear; calyx-lobes acuminate; petals 

 2 cm. long, cream color ; fruit short-conical, smooth ; carpels 6-10. 

 Common in subsaline places. May-September. 



Family 55. STERCULIACEAE. Sterculia Family. 



Trees, shrubs or herbs (mostly tropical or subtropical) 

 much resembling the Malvaceae. Calyx 5-parted, imbri- 

 cated, in ours petal-like. Petals wanting in ours. Sta- 

 mens in ours 5. monadelphous ; anthers adnate, extrorse, 

 2-celledj Longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 5-celied or 

 rarely 4-celled, with numerous horizontal anatropous 

 ovules in the axils. Style simple, terminated by a 

 minute undivided stigma. Capsule 5-valved. Seeds 

 oval or ovoid ; embryo straight. 



1. FREMONTODENDEON Coville. California Slippery- 



ELM. 



Shrub with hard wood and dark colored bark. Leaves 

 tawny-canescent or ferruginous beneath. Bractlets 3, 

 sometimes 5, minute, caducous. Sepals roundish, rotately 

 spreading in anthesis, nectariferous-pitted at base. Sta- 

 mens regular ; filaments adnate to the calyx at the base, 

 monadelphous to or above the middle ; anthers elongated- 

 oblong, emarginate at both ends, adnate to an incon- 

 spicuous connective. Capsule ovoid, firm-coriaceous.. 

 Seeds smooth. 



1. F. Californicum(Torr.) Coville. Branching shrub or arbor- 

 escent, 2-7 m. high ; leaves subcoriaceous, round-cordate to round- 

 ovate, 3-5-lobed or 3-5-cleft, 2-5 cm. broad; flowers short-ped- 

 nncled on short lateral branches ; calyx nearly glabrous, accrescent, 

 thin, 5-7 cm. in diameter, light yellow in anthesis, becoming 

 marcescent in age, within hairy at base and with a small nectarifer- 



