Trees or shrubs (a few are herbs), with alternate leaves, and the stamens united into a tube. A large order of tropical plants.
Genus 10. STERCÙLIA.
Leaves alternate, simple, usually lobed, ovaries more or less divided into 5 carpels, each 2- to many-lobed; fruit when ripe forming a star of 5 distinct pods.
S. platanifòlia.
Stercùlia platanifòlia, L. (Chinese Parasol.) Leaves large, deciduous, alternate, palmately 3- to 5-lobed, deeply heart-shaped at base, the margin entire, the lobes acute; smooth or slightly hairy; leafstalk about as long as the blade. Flowers green, in axillary panicles; fruit star-shaped. A small, beautiful tree from China; probably not hardy north of Washington.
Order VIII. TILIÀCEÆ. (Linden Family.)
An order, mainly of trees, abundant in the tropics; here represented by a single genus:
Genus 11. TÍLIA.
Trees with alternate, deciduous, obliquely heart-shaped, serrate leaves, about as broad as long. Leaves two-ranked on the stem. Flowers small, cream-colored, fragrant, in clusters on a peculiar, oblong, leaf-like bract. Fruit small (1/8 in.), globular, woody, in clusters from the same bract. Wood white and soft; inner bark very fibrous and tough.