32 XIII. STERCULIACEiE. [Sterculio 



Order XIII. STERCULIACEiE. 1 



Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with soft wood, frequently tomentose with 

 stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, mostly stipulate. Flowers commonly 

 regular, bisexual or unisexual. Calyx more or less deeply divided into 

 5, rarely 4 or 3, valvate lobes or segments. Petals 5 or none. Stamens 

 commonly monadelphous, with 5, 10, or 15 2-celled anthers. Fruit 

 carpels either distinct or united into a loculicidally dehiscent capsule 

 Seeds with or without albumen. Gen. PL i. 214 ; Royle 111. 102 ; Wight 

 111. i. 72 (Buttneriaceae). 



Flowers unisexual or polygamous ; petals none ; fruit of 5 dis- 

 tinct or nearly distinct carpels 1. Sterculia. 



Flowers bisexual ; petals 5 ; anther-cells divaricate ; fruit- 

 carpels distinct, or spirally-twisted .... 2. Helictbres. 

 Flowers bisexual, with an involucel of 3-5 caducous bracts ; 

 petals 5 ; anther- cells parallel ; fruit a capsule dehiscing 

 loculicidally. 

 Staminal column divided into 20 filaments, 5 without 



anthers ; capsule 5-valved . . . . _ . . 3. Pterospermum 

 Staminal column composed of numerous multiseriate fila- 

 ments, all bearing anthers ; capsule 5-10-valved . 5. Eriokena. 



1. STERCULIA, Linn. 



Trees, with entire, lobed, or digitate leaves. Flowers unisexual oi 

 polygamous. Calyx more or less deeply 5 -cleft, rarely 4-cleft, usually 

 coloured. Petals none. Carpels 5, distinct or nearly so, with two oi 

 more ovules in each, stalked on a long gynophore, adnate to which is th 

 staminal column, bearing at the top 10 or 15 anthers. Fruit-carpels dis- 

 tinct, spreading, coriaceous or woody, dehiscent along the inner edge, or 

 thin, foliaceous, opening long before maturity. Seeds one or more in each 

 carpel ; albumen adhering to the cotyledons, often splitting in two ; coty 

 ledons flat and thin. 





Fruit-carpels coriaceous, opening at maturity. 



Leaves deeply 5-7-lobed, lobes toothed or cleft ; flower panicles 



drooping ; carpels villose, with rust-coloured tomentum . 1. S. villosa. 

 Leaves shallowly 5-lobed, lobes entire; flower panicles pyra- 

 midal, erect ; carpels covered with sharp bristles . . 2. S. urens. 

 Fruit-carpels membranous, opening long before maturity . . 3. S. colorata. 



1. S. villosa, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 153. Tab. X. W. & A. Prodr. 63. 

 Vern. Gulkandar, massu, osha, gudgudala, Pb. ; Udial, Kamaon 

 Udar, udalla, Oudh. 



A tree, with grey or brown bark ; leaves on long petioles, crowded at 

 the end of branches, tomentose beneath, nearly glabrous above, deeply 5- 

 7-lobed ; lobes oblong or ovate-oblong, toothed or, cleft. Stipules broad- 

 lanceolate, deciduous. Flowers yellow, on slender pedicels, as long or 

 nearly as long as the calyx, loosely arranged in long drooping panicles, 

 5-8 panicles at the end of the leafless branch j bracts linear, caducous j 

 male and bisexual flowers mixed, the former by far the most numerous. 

 Calyx campanulate, membranous, border yellow, bottom of the calyx pink, 



