154 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Sterculiacea. 
A noble tree, rising* to the height of 80 feet. Bark grey-brown, somewhat wrinkled. Branchlets 
cylindrical, viscid in a young state. Stipules short, lanceolate-subulate, black-brown, clammy. Leaves when 
fully developed 2—6 inches long with many spreading nerves, rather coriaceous than chartaceous. Racemes 
simple, solitary, in the scanty number of specimens hitherto found few-flowered. Bracteoles herbaceous, 
solitary at the base of the pedicels, nearly lanceolate, indexed at the margin, 3-5 lines long, outside velvet- 
hairy, soon chopping. Sepals narrow-lanceolate, 2J-3 lines long, outward clothed with a thin grey-brown 
tomentum, inside smooth and prominently one-nerved. Petals little exceeding the length of the calyx, 
obovate-cuneate, not fimbriated nor even laciniated, crimson towards the base, otherwise white. Outer 
filaments the shortest; the other nearly as long as the anthers, which hardly exceed the length of J line. 
Style thin-subulate, about line long. Annular disk crenulated, with exception of the vertex smooth. 
Ovary ovate-globose, containing but few ovules. The perfect fruit hitherto unknown; the putamen, accord¬ 
ing to the remnants of old drupes, 3-5 lines long, deeply wrinkled j one cell seed-bearing, the other usually 
empty. 
This species shows considerable resemblance to the New Zeelandian Eleeocarpus dentatus (Yahl, Symb. 
iii. 67), of which E. strictus (Lamb, in Don Gen. Syst. i. 559), E. Hinau (A. Gunn, in Annal. of Nat. Hist. 
iv. 23 3 Hook. Icon. 602), and E. Cunningliami (Raoul, Choix, p. 25) are synonyms. This New Zealand 
species shows, however, longer petioles, a thinner more silky indument on the lower page of the leaves, and 
there also conspicuous foveoles in the axis of the lateral nerves of the leaves, and short-lobed although also 
not flanged petals and not large foliaceous bracteoles. Both E. holopetalus and E. dentatus approach to E. 
bifidus of the Sandwich Group, in reg’ard to the inconsiderable division of the petals, a character on which 
the untenable genus Beythea is principally founded. 
Order STEBCTJLIACEiE. 
Vent. Jard. Malmais . ii. 91. 
Elowers bi- or unisexual. Calyx raonophyllous, 5- rarely 4- or 6-cleft, or consist¬ 
ing of 5 sepals, or irregularly torn, often valvate in aestivation. Petals 5, convolute 
or imbricate in bud, not rarely wanting. Stamens in number definite or indefinite. 
Filaments united into a column . Anthers two-celled , turned outward , bursting by 
longitudinal slits. JPollenrgrams smooth. Staminodia none. Ovary consisting of 5 
rarely 3 very rarely 10-12 cells or carpellary portions, sessile or borne on a cylindrical 
torus. Ovules many, several, few or rarely 1, attached to the inner angle of the ovary. 
Styles coherent or distinct, seldom undeveloped. Stigmas free or coalescent. Eruit 
capsular, loculicidal five-valved, sometimes drupaceous or baccate or formed by free 
follicular rarely nut-like carpels. Seeds more frequently albuminous than without 
albumen. Eorm of the cotyledons and seat of the radicle various. 
Shrubs or oftener trees, rarely suflriiticose plants, usually star-hairy and mucus- 
yielding, noticed only in warmer latitudes, the Sterculean tribe preponderant in the 
eastern hemisphere, the Boinbacese in the western, attaining in this colony the re¬ 
motest southern position (lat. 37° S.), of very rare occurrence in South Africa, Wood 
frequently soft. Bark tough. Leaves alternate, compound or simple, usually deci¬ 
duous. Stipules almost always quickly dropping. Disposition and color of flowers 
