XXXVII. STEECULIACE^. 



285 



Teees or SHRUBS ■witL. soft wood, erect, sometimes climbing perennial or annual 

 [Ayenia) herbs, pubescent with starred or forked bairs, often mixed with simple 

 hairs, rarely scaly. Leaves alternate, sometimes simple, penninerved or palmi- 

 nerved ; sometimes digitate with 3-9 leaflets. Stipules free, deciduous, rarely folia- 

 ceous and persistent, very rarely {Lasiopetalum) . Flowers regular, 5 , or 



unisexual : inflorescence very various, usually axillary. Calyx usually persistent, 

 5-4-3-fid, or of 5 free sepals, aestivation valvate. Corolla 0, or petals hypo- 

 gynous, free, or adnate by their base to the stamina! tube, aestivation imbricate, 

 convolute or contorted. Stamekts very various ; filaments more or less connate into 

 a tubular or urceolate column : (1) staminal tube divided at the top into 5 teeth or 

 tongues [staminodes) alternate with the petals, and bearing in the intervals 

 between the staminodes l-2-5-oo anthers opposite to the petals, stipitate or sub- 

 sessile {Buttneria) ; (2) staminodes 0, anthers numerous, many-seriate, inserted on the 

 column from the middle to the top {EriolcBna), or 1-seriate at the top of the cup 



