BUTTERCUPS AND CLEMATIS. 85 
dehiscence of the latter is valvular like in Gassypium (the cotton- 
plant, which is co-ordinal, and produces also often three-valved 
fruits), and like in Hibiscus (of which garden plants for study 
can almost anywhere be obtained). Howittia is to be met on bushy 
irrigated declivities in the Grampians and Gippsland. Two other 
orders of plants are so closely allied to Malvacee, that they should 
not be passed unmentioned; the Sterculiacee, differing in two- 
celled anthers, and the Ti/iacee, separable for the same reasons and 
besides on account of free (not connate) stamens. Of the few 
Victorian representatives of Sterculiacese Lasiopetalum Behrii is 
selected for illustration (Fig. XXX VIIT.),a bush from the Murray- 
desert, named in honor of Dr. Hermann Behr, its discoverer, who is 
now engaged entymologically in California. The name of the 
genus is not well chosen, as it would imply hairy petals, whereas 
the minute petals are smooth, but the large calyx is beset with 
usually starry hairs. To this order belongs also our Bottle-tree 
(Brachychiton populneum) of the eastern frontiers (Wig. XX XIX.) | 
Like the Plagianthus it passes also under the aboriginal name 
“ Currijong;” it is an evergreen stout-stemmed tree, with foliage 
not unlike that of some Poplars ; hence the specific name, while 
the generic appellation is derived from the short hairy coating of 
the seeds. The tree yields a kind of Gum Tragacanth. Among 
Tiliaceze we count within the limits of our colony two stately 
trees of the genus Ele@ocarpus in Hast Gippsland, the fruits of 
which are not dissimilar to Olives, a circumstance which suggested 
the name. The type of the order is the British Linden-tree 
(Tilia Europea). 
XIV.—THE BUTTERCUPS, CLEMATIS 
AND ALLIED SPECIES. 
Amone the orders of plants with free petals inserted below the 
pistils, a few are notable for having their fruit separated into 
distinct fruitlets, each of which provided with a separate stigma 
(and often also style). Amidst these ordinal groups five interest 
