38 
5. SPHEIRALCEA St. Hilaire. 
Differing from Malvastrum only in the carpels being 2 or 3-seeded, or 
when 1-seeded@ with an empty terminal portion. 
* Carpels 1 or 2-ovuled, upper ovule (when present) abortive, more or less reniform at ma- 
turity, deciduous directly from axis (no retaining thread). 
+ Leaves allor mainly palmately parted: carpels very blunt: species greatly resembling 
Malvastrum coccineum, 
1. S. pedatifida Gray. Low and suffruticose, slender and diffusely branching, 
1 to 2.5 em. high: leaves deeply 3 to 5.lobed or divided, sparsely stellate-hirsute, seg- 
ments more or less mucronate-lobed and incised, often almost pinnatifid: flowers 
axillary and loosely racemose or in strict naked racemes: petals ‘‘ between a buff 
and a brick-color”: carpels blunt and with no tubercles, 1 or 2-seeded ( Malvastrum 
pedatifidum Gray).—Dry soil, all along the southern border of Texas. 
2. §. pedata Torr. Resembling the last, but tall, 6 dm. high: leaves very vari- 
able in the degree of dissection: flowers large, petals often 18 mm. long, more orange- 
red: carpels always 1-seeded.—Western Texas. Forms with very narrow leaf-divis- 
ions are var. ANGUSTILOBA Gray. 
+ + Leaves undivided, mostly cordate (occasionally obtusely lobed). 
3. S. ambigua Gray. Canescent throughout with short and close stellate pubes- 
cence (no loose woolliness): leaves ovate-cordate, merely crenulate-toothed : petals 
rose-color varying to white, 12 to 25 mm. long: fruit depressed, of wholly pointless 
carpels, surpassed by the acute or acuminate calyx-lobes. (S. Emoryi of many 
authors, but not of Torr.)—Abundant over the arid plains of Arizona, and found 
recently in Duval County. It should be found in arid places west to New Mexico. 
4. S. Lindheimeri Gray. Densely pannose-tomentose and calyx very woolly, 
decumbent at base: leaves cordate or more rounded, coarsely crenate: petals rose- 
red: ovules 2or 3 in each cell: carpels when mature much constricted in the middle, 
surpassed by the acuminate calyx-lobes.—On the Guadalupe River and southward 
into Mexico. 
+ + + Leaves undivided, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, rarely subhastately 3-lobed. 
5. §. hastulata Gray. Low: pubescence close and canescent: leaves oblong-lan- 
ceolate, coarsely and irregularly toothed or sinuate; petals orange-red : carpels ovate, 
deeply reniform, tipped with a small and deciduous cusp, often 2-seeded.—Prairies 
throaghout southern and western Texas. 
6. §. subhastata Coulter. Low, 7.5 to 25 cm. high, fruticose and branching, cov- 
_ ered throughout with coarse almost scurfy stellate pubescence: leaves shorter, ovate 
to oblong, mostly obtuse and subhastate, more or less serrate: flowers mostly soli- 
tary and axillary, on very short pedicels: petals purplish: carpels densely stellate- 
pubescent, without cusp or point.—In southwestern Texas and adjacent New Mexico 
and Mexico. 
** Carpels 2 or 3-ovuled (1 to 3-seeded), mostly oblong, when separating from the axis 
cohering by a thread. 
+ Leaves lanceolate to linear, not lobed. 
7. S. angustifolia Spach, var. CUSPIDATA Gray. Stems branching, 3 to 6 dm. 
high: densely clothed with a grayish stellate pubescence: leaves rugose, serrate: 
petals red: carpels tipped with an erect sometimes persistent cusp.—Western Texas. 
+ + Leaves of oblong or roundish outline, often cordate, mostly 3 to 5-lobed, sometimes 
dissected. 
8. S. Fendleri Gray. Herbaceous, much-branched, subcinereous with minute stel- 
late-pubescence: leaves generally green or greenish, or only lower face canescent, 
ovate-oblong or subhastate, incised or lobed (but not dissected): flowers small, soli- 
