142 XXIII. STERCULIACE^. [Kleinhovia. 



long by 2 to Sin. broad. Stipules ensiform. Flowers purplish or rose-coloured. 



Petals 5, shorter than the lanceolate sepals. Seeds tubercled. — Rump. 

 Amb. iii. 113. 



Hab.: Near Port Douglas. 



5. HELICTERES, Linn. 



(From the Greek, alluding to the twisted carpels.) 



(Methorium, Schott.) 



Calyx tubular, 5-oleft at the top, often oblique. Petals 5, equal or the 2 upper 

 ones broader, the claws elongated, and all or two of them often with a lateral 

 appendage. Staminal column adnate to the gynophore, truncate at the top, or 

 more frequently bearing 5 teeth or small lobes (stamipodia), with 1 or two stipitate 

 anthers between each, anther-cells divaricate, often confluent into one. Ovary 

 nearly sessile on the top of the staminal column, 5-lobed, 5-celled, with several 

 ovules in each cell, Styles 5, subulate, more or less connate, slightly thickened 

 and stigmatic at the top. Fruit carpels distinct or separating, opening along 

 their inner edge, straight or spirally twisted. Seeds with little albumen, coty- 

 ledons leafy, folded round the radicle.— Trees or shrubs, with stellate or branched 

 tomentum. Leaves entire, serrate or obscurely lobed. Flowers axillary, solitary 

 or clustered. Bracteoles none or distant from the calyx. Capsules usually 

 tomentose, the clusters of tomentum often forming long woolly processes. The 

 appendages on the claws of the petals appear to vary in different flowers of the 

 same species. 



A considerable genus, dispersed over the tropical regions both of the New and the Old World, 

 but chiefly American. Of the Queensland species one is a common Asiatic one, the other is 

 endemic. The frequently unilocular anthers closely connect the genus with MalvaeeiB. The 

 other characters are, however, more of Stercvliacece, and in some species the anthers are 

 distinctly bilocular. — Benth. (in part). 



Leaves hairy above, serrate. Fruit IJin. long . . 1. H. spicata. 



Leaves glabrous above, entire. Fruit size of a pea . . . . . . 2. iJ. semiglahra. 



1. H. spicata (flowers in spikes), C'olebr. (Masters) in Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. '*' 

 A shrubby plant. Leaves 2 to 6in. long, 1 to 2in. broad, from ovate-oblong to 

 lanceolate, acuminate, obliquely subcordate at the base, unequally serrate, on 

 petioles of from 3 to 9 lines, stellate, hairy above, downy beneath ; stipules 

 setaceous, as long as the petiole. Peduncles shorter than the leaves, 8-flowered ; 

 pedicels shorter than the flowers. Calyx nearly fin., campanulate curved, 

 distending at the base, downy. Ripe carpels If to If in.; stalks exserted from the 

 persistent calyx, oblong-lanceolate, beaked, very shaggy. 



Hab.: Inland, North Queensland. 



2. H. semiglabra (almost glabrous), F. r. M. Fragm. iv. 43. A shrub of 

 about 3ft. high. Leaves on short petioles, narrow-lanceolate, entire, glabrous on 

 the upper, velvety with stellate hairs on the under side, from 2 to 4in. long, apex 

 acute, base obtuse. Peduncles axillary, fasciculate, bearing 2 or a cyme of few 

 flowers. Pedicels scarcely 3 lines long. Calyx shortish. Petals scarcely 2 lines 

 longer than the calyx. Carpels erect, cohering in a globose woolly-tomentose 

 fruit the size of a pea. Seeds glabrous, 2 to 4 in each. 



Hab : Eookingham Bay, Dallachy. 



Var. procumbens. Branches procumbent, J to 2ft. long ; tomentum looser ; leaves smaller 

 and rounder, velvety- villous on the upper side; staminodia longer. Macadam range, 

 F. V. Mueller. 



Var. (?) jiugeUaris. Branches prostrate, 1 to 2ft. long ; leaves nearly sessile, cordate or 

 orbicular, 1 to IJin. long ; cymes on long slender peduncles. Port Essington, ^rmstronij. '■ 



