STANDLEY—TROPICAL AMERICAN PHANEROGAMS, 113 
PELTAEA, A NEW GENUS OF MALVACEAE. 
There is a small group of Malvaceae, consisting of 4 to 6 species, 
which has generally been treated as a section of Malache (Pavonia), 
although two of the species were described by Presl in the genus 
Malachra. The plants of this group in general appearance are very 
unlike the species of true Malache, and are distinguished also by the 
large leaflike floral bracts and the peltate-appendaged involucral 
bracts. The writer wishes to propose for the genus the name Peltaea, 
first used by Presl for a section of Malachra. 
PELTAEA (Presl) Standley, gen. nov. 
Malachra section Peltaea Presl, Rel. Haenk. 2: 125, 1836, 
Pavonia section Peltaca Giirke in Mart, Fl. Bras. 12*: 475. 1892. 
Low shrubs, or sometimes herbaceous plants woody only at the base, with slender 
or stout branched stems; pubescence usually abundant and composed of stellate 
hairs; leaves usually broad, petiolate, toothed; stipules narrow, commonly deciduous; 
inflorescence capitate or subcapitate, 3 to 10-flowered, on a long axillary peduncle, 
or sometimes sessile; bracts large, similar to the leaves, 1 or 2 subtending each head 
of flowers and usually surpassing them and concealing the carpels; bracts of the 
involucre 8 to 11, in a single series, each commonly with a peltate enlarged blade at 
the apex, at least always enlarged toward the apex; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed; 
petals yellow or purplish red, showy; stamen tube and pistil about equaling the 
petals; styles 10, rather short, erect; stigmas capitate; carpels 5, blunt, sometimes 
mucronulate, glabrous or pubescent, with a longitudinal dorsal nerve, elsewhere 
smooth or obscurely rugulose; seeds glabrous. 
Type species: Pavonia sessiliflora H. B. K. 
Peltaea ovata (Presl) Standley. 
The type was collected on the Isthmus of Panama by Haenke. Two Panama col- 
lections may be referred here: Fendler’s no. 21, from Chagres, and Pittier’s no. 2149, 
from ‘“‘among bushes around Culebra.’’ It seems fairly certain that these specimens 
represent Presl’s species, although one can not be absolutely certain without exam- 
ining the type. They differ from P. sessiliflora in having 5-nerved or 3-nerved, lance- 
olate or lance-ovate leaves, with a short rough pubescence and pubescent carpels. 
In P. sessiliflora the leaves are 7-nerved, broadly ovate-cordate, and velvety with a 
very dense pubescence and the carpels are glabrous. 
Peltaea riedelii (Giirke) Standley. 
Pavonia riedelii Giirke in Mart. Fl. Bras. 12°: 493. pl. 91. f. 2. 1892. 
Province of Matto Grosso, Brazil. 
Peltaea sessiliflora (H. B. K.) Standley. 
Pavonia sessilifiora H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 5: 281, 1821. 
Pavonia bracteosa Benth, Journ. Bot. Hook. 4: 118. 1842. 
Malachra trinervis Presl, Rel. Haenk. 2: 126. 1836. 
Trinidad and Panama to Colombia and Brazil. 
Peltaea speciosa (H. B. K.) Standley. 
Pavonia speciosa H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 5: 231. pl. 477. 1821, 
Colombia and Venezuela to Brazil and in the West Indies, 
5431°—16——3 ' 
