26 
STERCULIACE.33. 
Order XYI. STERCULIACE^]. 
Flowers regular, usually hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, lanceolate, united 
at the base, valvate in sestivatiou. Petals 5, hypogynous ; aestivation 
twisted or imbricated. Stamens monadelphous ; staminodes present 
or absent; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 5- or, 
in Waltlieria, 1-celled ; ovules 1 or many ; styles as many as the cells, 
free or joined downwards. Fruit indehiscent or dehiscing longitudi- 
nally ; placentation axile. Seeds usually albuminous. — Herbs or trees 
with alternate simple stipulate petioled leaves and varied inflorescence. 
Distrib. Round the world in the tropics. Species 500-600. 
Trees or shrubs. 
Staminodes 0. 
Stamens 5 1. Heritiera. 
Stamens 20 2. Astiria. 
Staminodes present. 
Sepals 5. 
Flowers in dense umbels or cymes ; ovules two in a cell 3. Dombeya. 
Flowers 2-3 together axillary ; ovules many in a cell 4. Trochetia. 
Sepals 2-3 * Guazuma. 
Herbs. 
Cells of capsule and styles 5 5. Melochia. 
Cells of capsule and styles 1 6. Waltheria. 
1. HERITIERA, Ait. 
Flowers monoicous. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed. Petals 0. 
Column of stamens cylindrical, shorter than the calyx, bearing 5 adnate 
anthers in a ring round its top. Carpels 5, nearly free ; ovules 
solitary; style short, with 5 thickened stigmas. Fruit woody, in- 
dehiscent, keeled down the back. Seed exalbuminous ; cotyledons 
very thick — Trees with undivided leaves, lepidote beneath and copious 
small pilose flowers in axillary panicles. Distrib. Tropics of Old 
World on shores. Species 3. 
I. H. littoralis, Ait ; DC. Prod. i. 484. A tree 50-60 feet high, 
with lepidote branches. Leaves short-petioled, oblong, entire, sub- 
coriaceous, penninerved, acute, or subobtuse, ^-1 ft. long, clothed with 
persistent brownish- white lepidote scales beneath. Flowers in copious 
axillary panicles, much shorter than the leaves, with slender branches 
clothed with brown pubescence. Calyx J in. deep ; teeth deltoid, as 
long as the tube. Fruit hard, woody, glabrous, oblong, pointed, 2-3 
in. long. 
Seychelles, common in Mabe and Silhouette, in marsby ground, Horne, 421 ! 
Polynesia to East Africa. Bois de Table. 
2. ASTIRIA, Lindl. 
Epicalyx of 3 reflexed deciduous bracteoles. Calyx divided nearly 
to the base into 5 lanceolate segments. Petals 5, obovate, clawed, 
