MALVACEJE. 



67 



Helicteres Isora. 



deep divisions, valvate and sometimes unequal. Higher up are inserted 

 five free petals, contorted with elongated claws, naked or provided 

 on each side with a kind of auriculate appendage, and forming a 

 corolla analogous to that of the Mallows. Above, the receptacle is 

 prolonged, as in Sterculia, into a long column, at the summit of 

 which the gynseceum is found, and immediately below it the anclro- 

 ceum, whose composition is variable. It comprehends either ten 

 stamens superposed, five to the divisions of the calyx, and five to 

 the petals, each provided with a two-celled extrorse anther with 

 longitudinal dehiscence, and five sterile tongues (staminodes ?) and 

 five fertile stamens ; or five groups of two or three fertile stamens, 

 each alternating with these tongues. The gynseceum is com- 

 posed of five alternipetalous carpels, whose one-celled ovary tapers 

 into a style, with more or less thickened and stigraatiferous apex. 

 In the mature flower it frequently happens 

 that the styles for a variable distance, and 

 the ovaries in the upper part of their interior 

 angle, adhere more or less closely to each 

 other ; but the carpels separate again one 

 from another at maturity. They are then 

 dry, polyspermous, dehiscing by the length 

 of their internal angle, and the seeds con- 

 tain under their coats a not very abundant 

 albumen, surrounding an embryo with 

 foliaceous cotyledons folded and convolved 

 round the radicle which is near the hilum. 

 Species of Helicteres are found in all the 

 warm parts of the globe, particularly of the 

 New^ World. Among the thirty species 1 or 

 so which compose the genus, nearly half of 

 them have carpels remaining straight. A 

 section has been made of them, called Ort 'ho carp cear The others 



Fig. 96. 

 Fruit. 



Fig. 95. 

 Flower. 



1 H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec, v. 303. — 

 A. S. H., PI. Us. Brazil., t. 61; Fl. Bras. 

 Mer., i. 271, t. 51. — Moric, PL Nouv. Amer., 

 t. 63. — Wight, Icon., t. 180. — A. Rich., Fl. 

 Cub., t. 18, 19.— Thw., Enum. PI. Zeyl., 28.— 

 MiQ., Fl. Lid. -Bat., i. p. ii. 169. — Benth., 

 Fl. Austral., i. 232.— Geiseb., Fl. Brit. W.- 

 Ind., 89.— Bot. Reg., t. 903.— Bot. Mag., 



t. 2061.— Walp., Rep., i. 332; ii. 794; Ann., 

 i. 105; ii. 159; iv. 319; vii. 422. 



2 DC, Prodr., 476 (sect. ii.). — Alicteris 

 Neck., Mem., n. 1801. — Ortlwthccium Schott 

 et Endl., Melet., 31. — Methorium Schott et 

 Endl., loc. cit., 29, t. 5. — Ejidl., Gen., n. 5315. 

 — Oudemansia MiQ., PI. Jungh., i. 296; Fl. 

 Ind.-Bat., i. p. ii. 169. 



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