184 XXlll. STfiRCULIACE^. 



Order XXIII. STERCULIACE^. 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual. Calyx usually persistent, more 

 or less deeply divided into 5 or rarely 4 or 3 valvate lobes or segments, or rarely 

 Splitting irregularly, or the sepals entirely free. Petals either 5, hypogynous, 

 free, or adhering to the staminal column, contorted-imbricate in the bud, or small 

 and scale-like, or none. Stamens usually united into a ring, a cup, or tube, with 

 5 terminal teeth or lobes (staminodia) alternating with the petals, and one or 

 more anthers sessile Or stipitate (on distinct filaments) in each interval, the 

 anthers 2-celled and opening outwards, in longitudinal slits, or exceptionally the 

 anthers are numerous or the staminodia wanting, or the stamens 5, free and 

 alternate with the sepals, or the anther-cells confluent or opening in terminal 

 pores. Ovary free, 2 to .5-celled, with the carpels more or less united, rarely 10 

 or 12-celIed, or reduced to a single carpel. Style entire, or divided into as many 

 branches as there are cells, or rarely styles as many, nearly or quite free. Fruit 

 various. Seeds sometimes hairy but not woolly, sometimes enveloped in pulp or 

 strophiolate, the testa coriaceous, occasionally enclosed in an outer membranous 

 integument ; albumen fleshy or none ; cotyledons usually foliaoeous, flat or 

 folded, the radicle shorter, next the hilum or rarely distant from it. — Herbs, 

 shrubs, or trees, the tomentum or hairs stellate, rarely mixed with simple hairs. 

 Leaves alternate or irregularly opposite, sirhple and pinnately or palmately nerved, 

 entire toothed or lobed, or digitately compound. Stipules rarely wanting. 



A large Order, chiefly tropical, dispersed over the New and the Old World, with some extra- 

 tropical Kenera in S. Africa or Australia, and very few species without the tropica in the northeirn 

 hemisphere. Of the 15 Queensland genera 10 are common to the tropical regions of the Old 

 World or both of the Old and the New World, the remaining 5 are endemic in Australia, with the 

 exception of single species of Riilingia and Kerandrcnia, found in Madagascar. — Benth. (in part). 



Thiee I. Sterculleee. — Flowers iiiiiKexual or polygamous. Calyx often coloured. Petals 

 none. Anthers 5 to 15, sessile or stipitate, surrounding the ovary at the top of a column or gyna- 

 phore. Fruit-carpels separate, sessile or stipitate. — Trees. Leaves simple or digitate. 



Anthers irregularly clustered. Seeds albuminous. 



Ovules 2 or more in each cell. Carpels follicular or opening along the 



inner edge 1. Stekculia. 



Ovules single in each cell. Cai'pels winged, indehiscent 2. Tabeietia. 



Anthers 5, in a ring. Ovules solitary. Carpels large, indehiscent. Albumen 



none . ... 3. Hebitibba. 



Tbibe II. Helicteres. — Flowers hermaphrodite. Petals 5, clawed, deciduous. Anthers on 

 short filaments, surrounding or alternating with 5 teeth of the column or staminodia. Leaves simple. 



Anther-cells divaricate. Capsule membranous, inflated 4. Kleinhovia. 



Anther-cells divaricate or confluent into one. Fruit-carpels distinct, or 



. spirally twisted • • ; , 6. Helicteees. 



Anther-cells parallel. Fruit woody, 5-valved. Seeds winged 6. Ptebospekmcm. 



Tkibe III. Dotnbeyete.— J^'ioK-ers hermaphrodite. Petals flat, persistent, longer than the 

 calyx. Anthers in the only Queensland plant of the tribe 5. 



Stamens 5 (or in Abronia more), united at the base in a short cup or ring, or 

 rarely free, with or without intervening staminodia, and surrounding the 

 sessile ovary. 

 Stamens 5, united in a cup, with 5 intervening elongated flat staminodia 7. Melhania. 



Tbibe IV. Kermannies. — FUnvcrs hermaphrodite. Petals marcescent, flat. Stamens 3. 

 No staminodia. 



Stamens 5, united at the base without intervening staminodia. 



Ovary 5-celled 8. Melochia. 



Ovary of one 1-oelled carpel . . 9. Walthekia. 



Tbibe V. Buettnerieee. — Flowers hermaphrodite. Petals with a short, broad, ven/ concave 

 base, and n sessile or stipitate lamina. 



Lamina of the petals stipitate, longer than the calyx. Staminodia o, obcor- 



date, with 2 to 4 stamens between each . . lo. Abeoma. 



