FLORA OF ADEN . 
127 
Flowers in axillary or terminal panicles, unisexual or polygamous. 
Calyx 4-5-fid or partite, usually coloured. Petals absent. Staminal 
column bearing 10-30 anthers arranged in a ring or without order. 
Carpels of the ovary 5, subdistinct ; each cell with 2- oo ovules. Styles 
consolidated; stigmas 5-lobed. 
Ripe carpels distinct, follicular, sessile or stalked, woody or mem- 
branous. Seeds 1 to many, naked or rarely winged, sometimes arillate. 
Albumen splitting into 2 segments, adherent to the cotyledons ; cotyledons 
flat or slightly undulate, thin or fleshy. Radicle directed towards the 
hilum or away from it. 
Species: — 100-120. 
Distribution: — Warmer regions of both hemispheres, especially in 
tropical Asia, one section (Brachychiton) in Australia. 
1, Sterculia arabiea (R. Br.) T. Anders. Journ. Linn. Soc, V, SuppL 
p. 9, t. 2, B- 
Sterculia abyssinica R. Br. ( mrtim ) in Append. Salt. Abyss, et in 
Pl. Jav. Rar. 227. 
Description : — A large tree, the stem reaching at Aden about 5 feet 
in circumference and 13-16 feet in height, with thick, greyish, rugose 
branches. Petioles 1-5 inches long, as long as the leaves, subglabrous, 
terete. Leaves rotundate, broadly ovate-obtuse, or subrhomboid acute,, 
sometimes subcordate at the base, entire or crenate, glabrous on both 
sides; stipules subulate, deciduous. 
Racemes at the end of the branches or axillary, simple, few-flowered,, 
much shorter than the leaves (4-1 inch), slender; peduncles glabrous; 
pedicels jointed, slightly pilose at the apex ; bracts minute, subulate. 
Flowers small, yellowish- green, lurid-purple at the base. Calyx divided 
about halfway down into 5 ovate-lanceolate spreading segments, pilose 
on both sides ; in male flowers *the staminal tube exserted, 10-lobed, 
glabrous. 
Follicles 4 (Anderson), 4-6 (Defiers), 2-5 (Balfour), terete, narrowly 
ovate, acute, subrostrate, fulvo-pubescent, f inch long, | inch broad. 
Flowers: — Dec. 1889 (Defl.), January 1880 (Balfour), February 
1851 (Thomson), April 1861 (Thomson). 
Fruits: — Nov. (Schweinf.). 
Locality : — Goldmore Valley, Wadi Maala (Schweinf.); ravine north 
of Shum Shum Range (Busse) ; slope of Shum Shum Range, crater 
south-west of the Tower of Silence (Defl.); without locality (Hook., 
Hildebr., Birdw.). 
