144 XXIII. STERCULIACEiE. [Melhania. 



rarely 3 or 4 flowers, the pedicels very short. Braoteoles narrow-linear or 

 subulate, rather shorter than the calyx. Sepals lanceolate-subulate, tomentose, 

 about 4 to 6 lines long. Petals rather longer, broad, yellow. Staminodia linear, 

 often 8 lines long ; anthers shorter, linear, on short filaments. Style elongated. 

 Capsule tomentose, shorter than the calyx, with 2 or 3 seeds in each cell.— 

 M. obloncjifolia, F. v. M. Fragm. i. 69. 



Hab.: Broadsound, Eockhampton and Burdekin Elvers, Port Curtis, Port Denison. 



The species is also found in the East Indian peninsula, and a alight variety or closely allied 

 species in tropical Africa. 



2. M. abyssinica (Abyssinian), A. Rich, Fl. Abyss, i. 76, *. 18. Stock 

 woody, tortuous, divided above into a number of crowded, subcsespitose, erect 

 branches, the latter covered with greyish down. Leaf-stalks less than lin. long, 

 shorter than the subeordate, oval obtuse, crenate-dentate leaves, which are 

 unieostate, downy on both services, paler beneath. Stipules hair-like. Peduncles 

 axillary, equal to or exceeding the petioles, simple or bifurcate. Buds oblong, 

 cylindrical. Flowers when expanded fin. across. Bpicalyx 1- sided, of 8 linear- 

 subulate bracteoles as long, or nearly so, as the ovate-lanceolate downy sepals. 

 Petals yellow, convolute. Style short. Capsule roundish or slightly pointed, 

 villose, slightly exceeding the persistent calyx. Seeds punctate, tuberculate. — 

 Mast, in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. 231 ; Brotera ocata, Cav. Ic. v. 20, t. 433 ; B. 

 Lepiieurii, Guill. et Perr., Fl. Seneg. i. 85 ; Melhania orata, Boiss., Fl. Orient i. 

 841 ; M. Leprieurii, Webb, Fl. Nigrit. 110, t. 4, 5. 



Hab.: Near Westwood Station, Central Eailway, Dr. T. P. Lucas. 



The small fragmentary specimen sent to me by Dr. Lucas for determination was certainly 

 belonging to the above plant, but not sufficient to point out any distinctive form, neither can it 

 as yet be stated with certainty whether it is indigenous or only an introduction. 



8. MELOCHIA, Linn. 



(Name in Arabic.) 



(Riedleia, Vent.) 



Calyx 5-lobed or 5-toothed, campanulate or inflated. Petals 5, spathulate or 

 oblong. Stamens 5, united at the base, without any or with very minute tooth- 

 like intervening staminodia ; anther-cells parallel. Ovary sessile or shortly 

 stipitate, 5 -celled with 2 ovules in each cell, styles 6, free, or united at the base, 

 often thickened at the stigmatic top. Capsule opening loculicidally in 5 or fewer 

 valves, some of the cells occasionally abortive. Seeds usually solitary in each 

 cell, ascending, with more or less of albumen ; embryo straight, with flat 

 cotyledons — Herbs, shrubs, or rarely trees, the stellate tomentum occasionally 

 mixed with spreading hairs. Leaves serrate. Flowers small^ axillary or terminal, 

 clustered or in cymes or panicles. 



A large genus, dispersed over the warmer regions of the globe, the herbaceous and suflruticoae 

 species chiefly Ajnerioan. The two Australian species are both herbaceous ; one belongs to the 

 American series, the other is Asiatic. — Benth. 



Capsule very angular, pyramidal, much longer than the calyx 1. M. pyramidata. 



Capsule small, globular 2. M. corchorifolia. 



1. IVE. pyramidata (shape of capsule), Li^m.; DC. Prod. i. 490; Benth. Fl. 

 Austr. i. 234. Herbaceous, with a hard almost woody base, although s6metimes 

 annual only. Branches slender, divaricate, often 2 or 8ft. long, slightly 

 pubescent in a decurrent line or all over. Leaves petiolate, lanceolate, or the 

 lower ones ovate, the larger ones 1 to 2in. long, serrate, usually glabrous. 

 Flowers small, purplish, 2 to 4 together in little almost sessile axillary umbels. 



