STERCULIACEAE 329 



Fruit oblong,- 10 to 15 cm long, prominently wrinkled, yellow or purplish. 

 Seeds numerous. (Fl. Filip, pi. 275.) 



Occasionally cultivated in our area, fl. all the year; throughout the 

 Philippines in cultivation. A native of tropical America, introduced here by 

 the Spaniards at an early date, now cultivated in most tropical countries. 



4. KLEINHOFIA Linnaeus 



A tree with simple, broadly ovate, acuminate, entire, palmately nerved 

 leaves. Panicles terminal, ample, lax, many-flowered. Flowers small, 

 numerous. Sepals 5, deciduous. Petals 5, unequal, the upper with longer 

 clav^s, margins involute. Staminal-column dilated above into a 5-fid cup, 

 each lobe with 3 anthers. Ovary inserted in the st^minal-cup, 5-lobed, 

 5-celled. Capsule membranaceous, inflated, obovate, loculicidally 5-valved. 

 Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell. (In honor of M. Kleinhqf, a Dutch botanist.) 



A monotypic genus. 



1. K. hospita L. Tanag (Tag., Vis.); Bitnong (II.). 



A. tree 8 to 15 m high, somewhat pubescent or nearly glabrous. Leaves 

 broadly ovate, acuminate, base- 5- or 7- nerved, cordate or truncate, 10 

 to 20 cm long, long-petioled. Panicles ample, 20 to 40 cm long. Flowers 

 pink, about 8 mm long, the sepals longer than the petals. Capgules about 

 2 cm long. (Fl. Filip. pi. S28.) 



In thibkets, Pasay, occasional, fl. Sept.-Nov.; common and widely dis- 

 tributed in the Philippines. Eastern Africa, tropical Asia, to Formosa, 

 southward to Malaya. 



5. HELICTERES Linnaeus 



Shrubs, more or less stellate-pubescent, with simple leaves. Flowers 

 axillary, solitary, fascicled, or in spike-like cymes. Calyx tubular, ^-fid, 

 pften irregular. Petals 5, clawed, equal or unequal,, the claws often auri- 

 cled. Staminal-column adnate to the gynophQre, 5-toothed or lobed at 

 the apex; anthers in groups between the teeth of the column, the cells 

 divergent. Ovary at the top of the column, 6-lobed, 5-celled ; styles slender, 

 more or less united. Fruits follicular, oblong, usually shaggy-hairy. 

 (Greek "twisted" or "spiral" in reference to the twisted carpels of some 

 species.) 



Species about 30 in the tropics of both hemispheres, 2 in the Philippines. 



1. H. hirsuta Lour. (H. spicata Colebr.). 



An erect, somewhat branched shrub 1 or 3 m high, all parts more or 

 less pubescent. Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, toothed, beneath stellate- 

 pubescent, 10 to 20 cm long, the base obliquely cordate, apex long-acumi- 

 nate. Cymes axillary, spike-like, 5 to 8 cm long. Flowers purple, nearly 



2 cm long. Calyx stellate-pubescent, the lobes acuminate. Fruit oblong, 



3 to 4 cm long, beaked, very shaggy. (Fl. Filip. pi. 91.) 



In thickets, Masambong, Fort McKinley, etc., fl. Sept.-Nov., and probably 

 in other months; widely distributed in the Philippines. India to China 

 and Malaya. 



6. PTEROSPERMUM Schreber 



Trees, mostly scaly or stellate-tomentose. Leaves coriaceous, large, 

 often oblique, simple or lobed. Peduncles 1 to 3, axillary and terminal, 

 the bracteoles entire or laciniate. Flower large. Calyx of 5 or more 

 connate sepals. Petals 5, falling with the calyx. Staminal-column short, 



