FLOEA OF TROPICAL AFEICA. 



Order CXXIII. ULMACE^. 



(By A. B. Rendle.) 



Flowers (in tropical African genera) polygamous, regular, 

 apetalous. Leaves of the perianth free or more or less united, 

 calycine, generally 4 or 5 in number, segments imbricate or valvate. 

 Stamens as many as and opposite to the perianth-lobes rarely more ; 

 filaments not inflexed ; anthers erect in bud, 2-celled, dehiscence 

 longitudinal. Ovary superior, 1 -celled ; ovule solitary, pendulous 

 from or below the apex of the cell, anatropous, with two integuments ; 

 style (in African genera) central, 2-partite, branches stigmatose on 

 the upper face. Fruit a flattened samara or an ovoid to globose 

 drupe. Endosperm wanting or scanty. Embryo straight or 

 curved. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, in two rows, simple, 

 often unequal at the base. Stipules lateral, free, generally small, 

 caducous. Flowers small, in axillary branched cymes, the fertile 

 sometimes solitary. 



Species about 130 ; widely distributed in both temperate and tropical 

 regions. 



Sub-Order I. TJlmoideee. — Flowers in the axils of scars 

 of preinous yearns shoots ; fruit a samara ; embryo 



straight ... 1. Holoptelea. 



Sub-Order II. Celtidioideee. — Flowers in the axils of 

 foliaje-leaves of the same season ; fruit a drupe ; 

 embryo curved. 



Branchlets unarmed (in African species) : 

 Leaf-margin entire or weakly or irregularly 

 toothed (serrate in C. kraussiana) ; fruit 

 2i-9 lin. long ; cotyledons broad ... 2. Celtis. 



Leaf-margin minutely toothed or crenulate ; 



fruit about 1 iin. long ; cotyledons narrow 3. Trema. 



Branchlets armed with axillary spines ... 4. Ch^tacme. 



L HOLOPTELEA, Planch. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 352. 



Flowers hermaphrodite with a few male. Perianth simple, calycine, 

 divided nearly to the base into 3-8, often unequal lobes. Stamens 

 as many as the lobes but generally more, up to 12. Filaments erect, 

 long, free, ultimately exserted ; anthers roundish, 2-celled. Ovary 

 rudimentary or absent in male flowers, in the fertile stalked, 

 compressed, passing above into a pair of short spreading style-arms, 



FL. TROP. AFR. VI. SECT. II. PART I. B 



