Mehrhia.] XXIII. STERCULIACE^. 145 



Calyx lO-ribbed. Petals about 2 lines long. Capsule 3 to 4 lines long, acuminate, 

 the very prominent angles produced into short horizontal points, giving each 

 valve a rhomboidal, and the whole capsule a pyramidal shape. — A. Gray, Gen. 



Hab.: Bookhampton, Wallace. 



The species is very generally distributed over tropical America, and occurs also in E. Africa, 

 the Mauritius, and the Pacific Islands. 



2. IVE. corchorifolia (Corchorus-leaved), Linn. Spec. 944 ; BentU. Fl. Austr. 

 i. 235. Herbaceous, with the habit of M. pyramidata, but usually more erect, 

 glabrous or with slightly pubescent decurrent lines. Leaves petiolate, from 

 broadly ovate to lanceolate, mostly 1 to 2in. long, serrate or crenate, glabrous. 

 Flowers small, purplish, nearly sessile in clusters, usually several together in a 

 broad, terminal, sessile cyme, rarely a few smaller clusters in the upper axils. 

 Calyx 6-angled. Petals about 2 lines long. Capsule small, depressed-globular, 

 with scarcely prominent angles, spinkled with a few hairs, the valves very rarely 

 splitting septicidally. — Riedleia corchorifolia, DC. Prod. i. 491 ; W. and Arn. 

 Prod. i. 66. 



Hab.: The far northern parts of the colony. 



The species is common in E. India, and includes M. concatenata, Linn., and M. supina, Linn., 

 with all the synonyms referred to these plants respectively by Wight and Arnott (I.e., under 

 Riedleia). Some of the Australian specimens are much starved, with small, occasionally 

 axillary, heads of flowers, apparently approaching M. nodiflora, Sw., another widespread tropical 

 species, which however not only has all the flowers in axillary clusters, but the capsule is much 

 more deeply furrowed, and usually septicidal as well as looulioidal, the carpels often entirely 

 separating. — Benth. 



9. WALTHERIA, Linn. 



(After A. P. Walther.) 



Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 5, spathulate, persistent. Stamens 5, united at the 

 base, without intervening staminodia ; anther-cells parallel. Ovary sessile, con- 

 sisting of a single 1-locular, 2-ovulate carpel, style excentrical, thickened or 

 fringed upwards. Capsule 2-valved, 1-seeded. Seed ascending, albumen fleshy ; 

 embryo straight, cotyledons flat. — Herbs, undershrubs, or rarely trees, the stellate 

 tomentum usually mixed with spreading hairs. Leaves serrate. Stipules narrow. 

 Flowers usually small, axillary or terminal in clusters, heads, cymes, or panicles. 



The species are mostly American, two are African, and two from the Pacific islands. The 

 Australian species is one which is very generally dispersed over the tropical regions of both the 

 Old World and the New. — Senth. 



1. IV. americana (American), Linn.; DO. Prod. i. 492 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 i. 236. A perennial or undershrub, 1 to 2ft. or more high, densely tomentose or 

 softly villous in every part. Leaves shortly petiolate, from ovate to oblong, 1 to 

 IJin. long, obtuse, toothed and plicately veined. Flowers small, yellow, in dense 

 heads, almost sessile in the axils of the leaves, or the upper ones clustered in a 

 short spike, or irregularly collected into dense cymes or leafy corymbs. Bracts 

 narrow. Calyx 1| to 2 lines long. Petals nearly twice as long, ^ narrow. — 

 W. indica, Linn.; DC. Prod. i. 493. 



Hab.: Cape Flinders, Port Denison, and other tropical parts. 



The species is common within or near the tropics all round the globe. 



10. ABROMA, Jacq. 

 (So called on account of it not being fit for food.) 

 Calyx 5-cleft. Petals 5, the claw dilated and concave at the base, the lamina 

 stipitate, ovate, plane. Staminal cup with 5 obcordate lobes (staminodia) alter- 

 nating with the petals, anthers 2 to 4 in each siiius, nearly sessile, with divaricate 

 cells. Ovary sessile, 5 -celled with several ovules in each cell ; styles 5, short, 



