576° I. Urban. 
In 1848 Asa Gray founded the new genus Malvastrum!) to include 
certain North American species of the old genera Malva and Sida, which 
possessed capitate stigmas (stigmata terminalia capitata). Then in 1854?) 
he extended his genus to include both the new species of acaulescent forms 
brought home by the United States Exploring expedition from South America, 
and also those previously collected by HuwBorpr, D’ORBIGNY, Meyen &c. and 
placed in the genus Sida (or Malva, e. g. Malva acaulis Cav.). 
Although Gray included all the acaulescent forms in his genus Malva- 
strum, he recognized that they fell into two distinct groups and distinguished 
those forms, which bear their flowers on the dilated petioles between the 
stipules as a sub-section Malvastra Phyllanthophora?). 
WepperL!) in Chloris Andina in 1857 sought to emphasize the di- 
stinction between the two groups of Andine Malvaceae by restricting the 
name Malvastrum to the Malvastra Phyllanthophora of Gray and placing 
the forms with free peduncles and involucral bracts in the genus Malva. 
This course was however unfortunate, since Malvastrum (Gray) was 
founded in the first instance to receive certain North American species and 
must therefore stand as originally intended; had he made a new genus 
much confusion would have been avoided. Further difficulties arose when 
in 1863 Turczanınow5) described a new genus of Malvaceae under the 
name Nototriche on four specimens collected by p'OnsrGwy near Potosi, 
which somehow found their way into the Herbarium of the university of 
Kharkow. These four plants, which were all made into new species, fell 
naturally into two sub-sections exactly equivalent to the Malvastrum and 
Malwa as used by WzppELL: 
Nototriche Turcz. 
a. »Ad collum praesertim villosissimae, floribus in medio petioli in- 
sidentibus, foliis bipinnatifidis«. 
1. N. cheilanthifolia D'Orbigny, n. 4354. 
2. N. discolor D’Orbigny, n. 1357. 
3. N. incana D’Orbigny, n. 1353. 
b. »Glabriusculae, pedunculis liberis, foliis ad medium tantum inciso- 
lobatis. « 
1. N. incisa D’Orbigny, n. 1355. 
An examination of most of the available material has made it clear 
that the Malvastra Phyllanthophora should be raised to generic rank as 
WeppeLL had intended; but with the question of the choice of a name 
1) Gray, Plantae Fendl. (Mem. Amer. Acad. IV. 91). 
2) Gray, Botany U. S. Expl. Exp. I. 4854 p. 446. The species were collected in 
the Cordillera near Lima, Peru. 
3) Gray l c. p. 454, 452. 
4) Wenner, Chl. And. Il. p. 273. 
5) Turcz., Bull. de la Soc. Imp. de Moscou XXXVI. 4863 p. 567. 
