CAMELLIA OR TEA FAMILY. 75 



23. STERCULIACE^, STERCULIA FAMILY. 



Chiefly a tropical family, to which belongs the Theobroma or 

 Chocolate-tree ; in common cultivation known here only by a 

 single species of 



1. MAHERNIA. (Name an anagram of Hermannia, a genus very like 

 it.) Calyx, corolla, &c. as in the Mallow Family; but the stamens only 5, 

 one before each petal ; the filaments monadelphous only at the base and" en- 

 larged about the middle, and the anthers with 2 pai'allel cells. The edges of 

 the base of the petals rolled inwards, making a hollow claw. Ovary 5-celled, 

 with several ovules in each cell : styles .5/ united at the base. 



M. verticillata. Cult, from Cape of Good Hope, in conservatories pro- 

 ducing a succession of honey-yellow sweet-scented small blossoms, on slender 

 peduncles, all winter and spring ; a sort of woody perennial, with slender and 

 spreading or hanging roughish branches and small green irregularly pinnatifid 

 leaves ; the specific name given because the leaves seem to be whorled ; but this 

 is because the stipules, which are cut into several linear divisions, imitate leaves. 



24. TILIACE^, LINDEN FAMILY. 



Chiefly a tropical family, represented here only by an herbaceous 

 CoRCHORUS on our southernmost borders, and by the genus of fine 

 trees' which gives the name. 



1. TILIA, LINDEN, LIME-TREE, BASSWOOD. (The old Latin 

 name.) Sepals .5, valvate in the bud, as in the Mallow Family, but decidu- 

 ous. Petals 5, imbricated in the bud, spatulate-oblong. Stamens numerous ; 

 their filaments cohering in .5 clusters, sometimes with a petal-like body in each 

 cluster ; anthers 2-celled. Pistil with a 5-cellcd ovary, having 2 ovules in 

 each cell, in fruit becoming a rather woody globular 1 - 2-seeded little nut. 

 Style 1 : stigma 5-toothed. Embryo with a slender radicle and leaf-like lobed 

 cotyledons folded up in the albumen. Trees with mucilaginous shoots, fibrous 

 inner bark {bast), soft white wood, alternate roundish and serrate leaves more 

 or less heart-shaped and commonly oblique at the base, deciduous stipules, 

 and a cyme of small, dull cream-colored, honey-bearing flowers, borne in early 

 summer on a nodding axillary peduncle which is united to a long and narrow 

 leaf-like bract. 

 * A petal-like scale before each petal, to the base ofivliich the stamens are joined. 



T. Americana, American Linden or Common Basswood. A hand- 

 some and large forest-tree, with leaves of rather firm texture and smooth or 

 smoothish both sides, or in one variety thinner and more downy but not white 

 beneath. 



T. heterophylla, White Linden. Along the Alleghany region from 

 Penn. and Kentucky S. ; has larger leaves silvery white with a fine down under- 

 neath. 



* * No scales with the stamens. Natives of Europe. 



T. Europsea, European L., embraces both the Small-leaved variety, 

 which is commonly planted about cities, and the Large-leaved or Dutch L., 

 with leaves as large and firm as those of our wild Basswood. 



25. CAMELLIACE^, CAMELLIA or TEA FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate and simple feather-veined leaves, 

 and no stipules ; the flowers large and sliowy, mostly axillary, reg- 

 ular, with both sepals and petals imbricated in the bud ; the very 

 numerous stamens with filaments more or less united at the base 

 with each other and with the base of the corolla : anthers 2-celled : 

 ovary and thick or woody pod 5-celled, with one or more seeds in 



