THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



63 



may therefore not be quite so exceptional in Menispermece, as 

 hitherto supposed. 



ADDrno:NAL note on sterculiace^. 



BT Baron von Muellkr. 



SiNCR my remarks on some sterculiaceous plants appeared in the 

 July-issue of the Victorian Naturalist, I obtained all at once fifteen 

 *'Hefte der Berichte der Deutschen botanischeu Gesellschaft/' among 

 them that, edited on the 21st May of this year in Berlin. At 82-85, 

 Tafel III. of this publication a new Brazilian sterculiaceous genus is 

 ably described and delineated under the name Basiloxylon by Dr. 

 K. Schumann, and thus a most interesting access is gained, as it 

 adduces a generic type from the western hemisphere closely cognate 

 to Pterygota, the extension of which genus to New Guinea had just 

 been shown by me here. The distinguished author alluded already 

 in the description to affinity with those species of Sterculia, which 

 lave seeds, each terminated by a large membrane; indeed Basiloxylon 

 differs from Pterygota only in uniseriate anthers, the number of 

 pistils being reduced in P. 2'hwaitesii also to three, while these 

 organs of the Papuan congener remained yet unknown. Moreover' 

 the arrangement of the anthers, from what is seen in Sterculia 

 oliganthera, appears to be of doubtful generic value, so that perhaps 

 the new coordinal Brazilian plant could be transferred to Pterygota 

 subgenerically, especially so, as in its outer appearance it is quite 

 similar to the three known genuine species of Pterygota. At all events 

 the fact, that Dr. Schumann founded on his plant a new genus, confirms 

 the view, enunciated in these pages, that the genus Sterculia, as 

 defined by recent writers, needs disintegration again. 



EECORD OF A NEW PAPUAN HELICIA 

 BY Baron Ferd. von Mueller. K.C.M.G., M. & Ph.D. 



F.R.S. &c. 



Hklicia Forbesiana. 



Almost glabrous; leaves lanceolar-ovate or nearly lanceolar, pro- 

 tracted at the summit, decurrent into the usually very short petiole, 

 generally quite entire at tlie margin, their nerves ascendant and 

 teneath prominent; I'acemes elongated; pedicels rather long, free to 



