BUTTNERIACE^E. 191 



lines long, the largest an inch and a half in length and of nearly the 

 same width), finely-toothed, somewhat plicately straight-veined; the 

 upper surface glabrous, or slightly puberulent when very young; the 

 lower canescent or cinereous with a fine and close pubescence, minutely 

 reticulated between the primary veins, becoming almost glabrous (but 

 pale) when old. Petioles from 3 to 6 lines long. Stipules setaceous, 

 early deciduous. Flowers crowded in subsessile axillary glomerules or 

 heads, which are not very dense, or the cluster rarely on a peduncle 

 which almost equals the petiole, inclined to be secund. Bracts 

 lanceolate, mostly obtuse, silky-villous like the calyx, which they 

 equal in length. Calyx canescently siUcy-villous with fine and soft 

 hairs, not at all hirsute, 3 lines long, five-cleft scarcely to the middle; 

 the lobes lanceolate or broadly linear, obtuse or obtusish. Petals entirely 

 glabrous and beardless, narrowly spatulate, connected only at the very 

 base, about one-third longer than the calyx. Filaments slender, half 

 the length of the petals, monadelphous only at the base. Anthers 

 oblong, two-celled, extrorse. Ovary very villous. Style filiform, 

 sparsely arachnoid-villous, terminated by a simple and naked truncate 

 stigma. Fruit utricular, hirsute-villous. Seed and embryo, as in W, 

 Americana. 



This is a more shrubby and branching plant than W. Americana, 

 from which it is abundantly distinct, also, in its rounded and smooth 

 leaves, its broader and blunter calyx-teeth, which are not hirsute, and 

 its smooth petals. I have seen no other species with which it would 

 particularly be compared, except Wdltheria Lophanthus of Forster, 

 which has silky-tomentose leaves, and is figured (in Char. Gen.) as 

 having acute calyx-teeth, and a two-cleft style ! 



9. MELOCHIA, Linn. 



1. Melochia (Riedleia) corchorifolia, Linn. 



Mdochia corchorifolia, Linn. Spec. p. 675. (Dill. Elth. p. 221, t. 176, f. 217.) 

 M. concatenata, Linn. Spec. 1. c. ; Cav. Diss. 6, t. 175, f. 2. 

 Riedleia corchorifolia & R. concatenata, DC. Prodr. 1, p. 491, 492, 



Hab. Singapore. Banos, Luzon. 



