BOTANY. 189 
(evident in the bud). Fruit stipitate. Perisperm fleshy and thick. Leaves 
simple. Example: Helicteres. 
Sub-order 3. Sterculiew. Flowers unisexual. Leaves simple or palmate. 
Example: Cola. 
There are thirty-four genera and 125 species, none of which are North 
American. Adansonia digitata, the Baobab or Monkey bread of Senegal, is 
one of the largest of known trees, a diameter of thirty feet having been 
observed. Adanson incorrectly estimated the age of this individual at 
5000 years. The height is not in proportion to the diameter. Cheirostemon 
platanoides is the Mexican Hand plant, so called on account of the five 
peculiarly curved anthers, resembling claws. The silky hairs of Bombax 
ceiba, the silk-cotton tree, are used in stuffing cushions. 
Orver 196. Matvacem, the Mallow Family. Sepals five, rarely three or 
four, more or less cohering at the base, with a valvate estivation, often 
bearing an external calyx (epicalyx) or involucre. Petals equal in number 
to the sepals; estivation twisted. Stamens 00, hypogynous, all perfect; 
filaments monadelphous or polyadelphous; anthers monothecal, reniform, 
with transverse dehiscence. Ovary formed by the union of several carpels 
round a common axis, either distinct or cohering; styles as many as the 
carpels, united or free. Fruit capsular or baccate; carpels one- or many- 
seeded, sometimes closely united, at other times separate or separable; 
dehiscence loculicidal or septicidal. Seeds amphitropal or semi-anatropal ; 
albumen 0, or in very small quantity; embryo curved; cotyledons twisted 
or doubled. Herbaceous plants, trees, or shrubs, with alternate stipulate 
leaves, more or less divided, and often with stellate hairs. They are found 
chiefly in tropical countries and in the warm parts of the Temperate Zone. 
Tribe 1. Malopeew. Carpels indefinite, crowned together in a five-lobed 
or amorphous head, uniovulate. adicle inferior. None North American. 
Example: Malope. 
Tribe 2. Malvee. Carpels as many as the stigmas (five to twenty or 
more), uniovulate or pauciovulate, disposed in a ring around a central axis, 
from which they at length separate. Column antheriferous at the summit. 
Sub-tribe 1. Humalvee. Style stigmatose down the inner face. Carpels 
uniovulate, numerous. Ovule peritropous, ascending. Examples: *Malva, 
*Callirrhée, *Napza. Swub-tribe 2. Side. Stigmas terminal, capitate. 
Carpels uniovulate. Example: *Sida. Sub-tribe 3. Abutilew. Carpels 
three- to nine-ovulate, not bilocellate, somewhat two-valved, scarcely 
separating from the axis. Example: *Abutilon. 
Tribe 3. Urenee. Carpels or cells of the ovary half as many as the 
stigmas (viz. five, the stigmas ten), uniovulate. Radicle inferior. Examples: 
Urena, *Malachra. 
Tribe 4. Hibiscew. Carpels as many as the stigmas, three to ten (usually 
five), combined into a loculicidal few- or many-seeded (or rarely indehiscent) 
capsule; the dissepiments borne on the middle of the valves. Column 
antheriferous for a great part of its length, naked and five-toothed at the 
apex. Examples: *Hibiscus, Gossypium, Abelmoschus. 
~ -- Lindley enumerates 37 genera with 1000 species. North America has 
189 
