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 616 PLANTS JAVANICLE RARIORES.

urceolus antherarum which Aublet describes, and which, as he states, by their enlargement form the mass of rigid processes surrounding the ripe fruit, have no existence; and that this singular appendage to the fruit is an acci- dental structure or monstrosity, probably of rare occur- rence, of which I have found a single specimen among the loose fruits of his herbarium.

In 1775 also was published the 'Flora iEgyptiaco- Arabica' of Forskael, who describes a supposed new genus, Culliamia} which is no doubt a species of Sterculia, cer- tainly, however, not platanifolia as Yahl affirms, but 222] perhaps either S. tomentosa of the ' Flora Senegambiae,' or the nearly related species abyssinica. Culltamia is de- scribed as having hermaphrodite flowers, and it is stated that the style, which is originally concealed by the stamina, only becomes visible after the expansion of the flower, so that here we have the same account of structure aud gradual development of pistillum which was afterwards given by Cavanilles and adopted by de Jussieu.

In 1786, in the first volume of the 'Acta Acad. Patavin,' 2 Marsili proposed a new genus related to Sterculia, and formed of St. platanifolia of the ' Supplementum Plantarum' of the younger Linnaeus.

In 1788 Cavanilles published his fifth dissertation on Monadelphous plants, in which Sterculia 7 ' appears with its characters considerably modified, Ivira of Aublet being included in it, and some additional species described. He refers the genus to Monacleljj/iia, states the flowers to be hermaphrodite, and accounts for their unisexual appearance by assuming the gradual and more tardy development of the female organ ; he also describes the stigma as either bifid or with five rays, the supposed existence of the bifid stigma being founded on an error in the drawing of S. platanifolia by Mile. Basseporte, from which his engraving- is copied.

In 1789 the immortal work of A. L. de Jussieu ap- peared. Sterculia is there 4 for the first time correctly

��p. 9G. - p. 10G. 5 p. 284. * p. 278.

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