230 



Sterculiaceae. 



Steroulia. 

 ( 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. Leaf-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, pi. 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. 



