Family 12. SURLANACEAE 



Bv Percy Wilson 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate, simple leaves. Flowers perfect, solitary, 

 or in few-flowered terminal clusters. Calyx of 5 persistent sepals. Corolla of 

 5 imbricate petals. Androecium of 10 stamens ; filaments slender, nearly dis- 

 tinct, those opposite the petals shorter. Disk adnate to the base of the calyx, 

 or obsolete. Gynoecium of 5, distinct, 1-celled carpels. Styles 5, lateral, fili- 

 form ; stigmas capitate. Ovules 2, collateral, ascending. Fruits achene-like. 

 Embryo horseshoe-shaped, thick. 



1. SURLANA L. Sp. PI. 284. 1753. 



Characters of the family. 



Type species, Suriana maritima L. 



1. Suriana maritima L,. Sp. PI. 284. 1753. 

 A shrub 1-2 m., or a small tree sometimes 8 m. high, with rather fleshy, pubescent 

 foliage ; leaves numerous, linear-spatulate, 1-4 cm. long, 2-6 mm. broad, entire, sessile ; 

 sepals narrowly lanceolate to ovate, 6-10 mm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, acuminate ; petals 

 yellow, obovate, 7-9 mm. long, erose near the tip; fruit S-10 mm. broad, the achene-like 

 carpels 4-5 mm. high, finely pubescent. 



Type locality : Bermuda. 



Distribution : Bermuda, Florida, the West Indies, and tropical continental America ; also 

 in the Old World tropics. 



Illustrations : Sloane, Hist. Jam. pi. 162,/. 4 ; Lam. Tab. Encyc. pi. 389 ; E. & P. Nat. Pfl. 

 3*:/. 119 ; Britton, N. Am. Trees /. 544. 



Volume 25, Part 3, 1911] 225 



