944 DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW PLANTS 
branches of the cyme densely covered with fine brownish tomentum. 
Flowers numerous, compact, pedicellate. Pedicels terete, about 3 lines 
long, with a single minute bract at the base. Calyx, in the bud state, 
with the divisions valvately connate, at length deeply divided into 4—5 
ovate-oblong, obtuse, segments, about 2 lines long. Petals 5, obovate- 
oblong, obtuse, 33 lines long. Æstivation imbricated. Hypogynous 
disk none. Stamens about 80, inserted on the receptacle. Filaments 
free, filiform, glabrous, shorter than the petals. Anthers ovate, didy- 
mous, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Abortive ovary very 
small, densely covered with long brown articulated hairs, and termi- 
nated by a short, many-cleft style. 
Of this curious shrub I have not had an opportunity of examining 
either the female flowers or the fruit; indeed, Capt. Champion remarks ` 
that though it is common in Hong-Kong, he has never met with other 
than male plants. That it belongs to Tiliacee, I think there can be no 
doubt, though in the absence of further knowledge of its structure, it 
is difficult to say whether it can be referred to any known genus of 
that family, or if it forms the type of a new one. With Brownlowia of 
Roxburgh, it has many points in common, both in habit and in the 
structure of the male flowers, but the stamens are inserted directly on 
the receptacle, and there is no inner row of petaloid ones. The genus 
Heptaca of Lourero, which in the latest systematic works still remains 
among the “ Plante incerte sedis,” strikes me as being the one to 
which the present plant has the nearest relationship, and to it, there- 
fore, I provisionally refer it. In habit they both perfectly agree, and 
the only difference in the male flowers, is, that in Heptaca there are 
ten petals, while here there are only five. Imperfect as the above 
description of the plant is, it may direct the further attention of 
botanists to it, and also as to whether I am correct in referring Hep- 
laca to Tiliacee. Lourero distinctly states that his Heptaca Africana 
is a native of the west coast of Africa: why Endlicher asserts that it 
is a native of Cochin-China I know not. 
TERNSTREMIACEA. 
PENTAPHYLAX, Gardn. et Champ. 
Cuar. GEN. Calyx persistens, bibracteolatus, pentaphyllus, foliolis im- 
bricatis, ovatis, obtusis, inzequalibus. Corolle petala 5, hypogyna, 
