156 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Sterculiacea. 
Brachyckiton is well separated by Bob. Brown from the near-related Sterculia, on account of the 
hairy testa being half-retained within the follicle, and principally in consequence of the radicle bein<* 
not situated on that extremity of the seed remotest from the hilum; to which characters maybe added 
that of the expression of a large orbicular chalaza und the faint indication of a longitudinal raphe. 
BracLy chiton populneum, P. Sr. in HorsfieWs Plant. Javan, rarior. 234 3 Sterculia hetero- 
pliylla, All. Cunn. in Garden Catalog, not Beauv. ; S. diversifolia, Don, Gen. Syst. i. 516. 
Evergreen 3 leaves simple 7 glabrous , thin-coriaceous ; those of the adult tree verging into an ovate or 
rhomboid form, long- and narrow-acuminate, entire or acutely three-lobed ; dowers paniculate 3 peduncles 
and pedicels glabrous 3 calyx rather small, broad-bellshaped, outside sparingly short-downy , inside red - and 
yellow-variegated , glabrous and without appendages at the bottom; its lobes nerveless, short-tomentose at 
the margin 3 staminal column smooth, ovaries inserted on a very short stipes, star-liairy 3 follicles rather 
large, coriaceous-lignous, many-seeded, longer than the stipes, outside glabrous. 
Amongst granite rocks and in granitic drift on the Snowy River near the Pinch Range, and on the 
tributaries Ingegobba and Freestone River, also on the River Hume. In East Australia from Twofold Bay 
to the Mackenzie River. 
A monoecious tree, attaining a height of 60 feet, well adapted for lining walks, on account of its 
singularly beautiful evergreen umbrageous foliage. Stem often more or less turgid, remarkably so when 
growing from betwixt granite rocks, whence the appellation “ Bottle-tree” has been given as well to this 
species as to Brackychiton Delabecliei 3 in exceptional instances young stems, emerging from the fissures of 
rocks, attain a width of 2J feet by a length of only about 5 feet. Bark smooth, of a bluish-grey or finally 
grey-brown and slightly wrinkled exterior, tough, worked into textile fabrics by the aborigines, called, with 
other textile barks, such as that of Sida pulchella, Commersonia Fraseri, Pimelea axiflora, Ac., “ Curryong.” 
Branches divaricate or considerably spreading, thus forming* a beautiful dense wide crown to the tree. The 
form of the leaves in the juvenile plant remarkably subject to. variation, as expressed in the accompanying 
plate 3 thus entire, or in various degrees cleft into 2-5 obtuse, acute or acuminate broad or narrow lobes, 
passing by all possible intermediate modifications into the more normal broad- or lanceolate- or rhomboid- 
ovate long-acuminate form of those of the aged tree, which measure usually from 2-4 inches in length, are 
shining, of an almost equal color on both pages, dark- green, pro rid ed with 1-3 rarely 4-5 primary nerves, 
with many secondaiy spreading nerves and net-veins, stalked by a slender long petiole. Stipules fast 
dropping, free, 1-3 lines long, often semilanceolate. Panicle axillary, with several, sometimes but few, 
rarely very many flowers. Pedicels solitary or twin, variable in length, but shorter jhan the flowers, 
articulated below the summit or near the middle. Bracteoles lanceolate or linear, acute, 1-1 1 line long. 
Male flowers usually prevalent in number and larger than the female blossoms. Calyx when frilly expanded 
from §-l inch long*, to near the middle rarely still deeper five-cleft, in abnormal cases six-cleft, with more or 
less semilanceolate or deltoid lobes, outside white- or green-yellowish. Staminal column of the male flowers 
1J-3 lines long, bearing at the top a small globule, consisting of five very short connivent phalanges with 
extrorsely adnate anthers, surrounding and concealing five minute barren ovaries, which are terminated by 
very short connate styles. Anthers 5 —§ line long, yellow or finally brownish, arranged in an irregular series 
around the phalanges 3 their cells through mutual pressure of the anthers often so much distorted and 
misplaced as to assume the apjjearance of one-celled anthers. Pollen-grains pale-yellow, elliptical, smooth, 
with three longitudinal slits, spherical when moistened. Ovaries of the female flower 5, cohering into a 
globe, seated on a very short almost obliterated staminal column, surrounded at the base with many pollini- 
ferous and seemingly fertile anthers, which are not unlike those of the strictly male flowers, and indistinctly 
arranged in bundles. Styles 5, glabrous or somewhat downy tovmrds the base, capillary, about li line long, 
lengthwise connate or more or less twisted, at last partially free from below. Stigmas very short, free. 
Ovules 15-18, arrayed in a double row along the suture. Follicles usually 2-3 inches long, subovate, rostrate, 
