MALVACEÆ. 67 
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 Sferculia, into a long column, at the summit of 
which the gynæceum is found, and immediately below it the andro- 
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 gynæceum is com- 
posed of five alternipetalous carpels, whose one-celled ovary tapers 
into a style, with more or less thickened and stigmatiferous 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! or ee Paes 
so which compose the genus, nearly half of pyuit, or 
them have carpels remaining straight. A 
section has been made of them, ealled Orthocarpea.” The others 
Helicteres Isora. 


1H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec., v. 303.— +t. 2061.—Watp., Rep., i. 332; ii. 794; Ann., 
A. S. H., Pl. Us. Brasil., t. 64; Fl. Bras. i. 105; ii. 159; iv. 319; vii. 422. 
Mer., i. 271, t. 54.—Mortc., Pl. Nouv. Amér., 2 DC., Prodr., 476 (sect. ii.).—Alicteris 
t. 63.—Wient, Leon. t. 180.—A. Ricn., Fl. Nucx., Elem., n. 1801.—Orthothecium SCHOTT 
Cub., t. 18, 19.—Tuw., Enun. Pl. Zeyl., 28.— et Enpu., Melet., 31.—Methorium SCHOTT et 
Mio, Fl. Ind.-Bat., i. p. ii. 169.—BENTH,  Envt., loc. cit., 29, t. 5—ENDL., Gen., n. 5315. 
Fl. Austral., i. 232.—GRises., Fl. Brit. W.- —Oudemansia Miq., Pl. Jungh., i. 296; F1. 
Ind., 89.—Bot. Reg., t. 903.— Rot. Mag, Ind.-Bat., i. p. ii. 169. 
F2 
