230 STERCULIACEAE. 
STERCULIA. 
(Family Sterculiaceae). 
Trees: deciduous. Bark smooth, 
gray. Wood soft, pale, somewhat 
ring-porous, with small ducts, 
moderate medullary rays and tan- 
gential wood-parenchyma pattern. 
Twigs very stout, terete: pith 
very large, round, continuous, 
white. Buds subglobose, solitary, 
sessile, with several very hairy 
scales; the lateral buds small, the 
terminal large. lLeaf-scars alter- ~- 
nate, more crowded toward the 
tip, low, elliptical: bundle-traces 
about 10, in an irregular ellipse, 
compound:  stipule-scars’ elon- 
gated, often upcurved. 
Winter-characters of Sterculia 
platanifolia are indicated by 
Shirasawa, 283, pl. 13. 
Sterculia platanifolia is prob- 
ably the most striking tree that 
can be cultivated in the near-North, because of its very large 
leaves, deeply palmately lobed with rounded sinuses and acu- 
minate segments. In winter its thick green twigs with 
strongly contrasting reddish hairy buds and large leaf-scars 
mark it almost as distinctly in comparison with anything else 
grown in the Botanical Garden at Washington, where it is to 
be seen. 
Twigs green: buds dark red-brown. S. platanifolia. 
