Hermannia. STERCULIACEiE. 339 



trorse, the stamens not rarely reduced to five, these (or the phalanges) opposite the 

 petals or the place of those when wanting, as in Sterculiete. This tribe is repre- 

 sented by Sterculia {Firmiana) platanifolia, of China, &c., sometimes planted 

 southward, remarkable for having its large and thin follicles opening long before 

 maturity into a kind of leaf bearing two or three large seeds on the edges. The 

 few N. American members of the order are of two tribes. 



Tribe I. HERMANNIE^E. Flowers perfect, 5-andi-ous. Petals plane, strongly 

 convolute in aestivation, usually marcescent. 



1. HERMANNIA. Calyx deeply 5-cleft. Petals erect, obovate, with involute claws. 

 Stamens 5, with no trace of a second series ; filaments mouadelphous at base, unappendaged. 

 Uvary 5-celled, many-ovuled ; styles filiform, connivent, but little if at all united. Capsule 

 6-celled, loculicidal ; seeds reniform, with a strongly arcuate narrow embryo in copious 

 fleshy albumen. 



2. MELOCHIA. Calyx 5-cleft. Petals spatulate or oblong. Stamens 5, monadelphous 

 below, sometimes as many interposed short teeth between the filaments. Ovary 5-celled, a 

 pair of ovules in each cell; styles slender, united below, nearly distinct. Seeds mostly soli- 

 tary in each cell of the 5-angled capsule ; embryo straight in fleshy albumen, with broad 

 fiat cotyledons. 



3. WALTHERIA. Calyx 5-toothed, turbinate, 10-nerved. Petals spatulate. Stamens 5 ; 

 no intermediate teeth. Pistil of a single carpel ; ovary 2-ovuled,' but lower ovule infertile ; 

 style eccentric, filiform ; stigma peuicillate. Follicle akene-like, usually dehiscent length- 

 wise ; seed (ascending) and embryo as in Melochia. 



Tribe II. BUETTNERIEiE. Flowers perfect. Petals ligulate and cucullate. 

 Sterile stamens (staminodia) alternate with the fertile series at summit of stamen- 

 tube. (Here Theobroma, the chocolate-tree.) 



4. AYENIA. Calyx 5-parted. Petals with a long concave claw, bearing an urceolate hood 

 at the inflexed apex, which is more or less aduate with the urceolate summit of the stamen- 

 tube. Fertile stamens 5, one in each sinus between truncate staminodia ; anthers short, of 

 three parallel cells ! Ovary stipitate, 5-celled, a pair of ovules in each cell ; styles united 

 into one, bearing a capitate or 5-lobed stigma. Capsule globular, muricate, 5-celled ; the 

 five 1 -seeded carpels in dehiscence separating from a central column and septicidally from 

 each other, then loculicidally 2-valved ; seeds transversely rugose ; albumen none ; embryo 

 straight, but the orbicular cotyledons longitudinally convolute. 



5. NEPHROPETALUM. Calyx 5-parted. Petals unguiculate ; blade concave, reniform, 

 with deep sinus, free at the apex, neither appendaged nor glandular. Stamens and stamino- 

 dia as in the last preceding genus. Ovary sessile, globose, 5-celled ; cells 2-ovuled ; styles 

 simple, bearing capitate stigma. Capsule globular, muricate with pubescent processes ; cells 

 by abortion 1 -seeded. 



1. HERMANNIA, Tourn. (Paul Hermann, professor at Leyden, who 

 sent the first species to Tournefort.) — Inst. 656, t. 432; Dill. Elth. t. 147; 

 L. Gen. no. 551 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 87, t. 135. — Large African (chiefly Cape) 

 genus of frutescent plants, a few Mexican, and the following on our borders. 



H. Texana, Gray. Low, suffrutescent, tomentose-canescent with stellular pubescence : 

 stipules minute, deciduous ; leaves roundish and subcordate, obscurely serrate, inch or two 

 long : short axillary peduncles loosely few-flowered ; pedicels recurved in fruit : petals dull 

 scarlet, 4 lines long : anther-cells with tapering tips : capsule globular, somewhat inflated, 

 half inch or less long, villose-tomentose, short-stipitate ; valves crested on the back with 

 soft filiform processes; seeds coarsely favose. — Gen. 111. ii. 88, t. 135 (figure wrong in 

 re])resenting spreading petals, single style, and erect capsules), PI. Lindh. pt. 2, 165, & PL 

 Wright, i. 24. — Ilocky soil, S. and W. Texas, Berlandier, Wright, Lindheimer, &c. (Adj. 

 Mex.j 



