Tas. 4365. 
LOPIMIA maLacopHyLLa. 
Soft-leaved Lopimia. 
Nat. Ord. Matvacr#®.—MoNnADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. LOPIMIA, Mart. Involucellum calyciforme, ovatum, subventri- 
eosum, primum (in aspectu) monophyllum, striatum, apice irregulariter 3—-5-fidum, 
demum polyphyllum, ore contracto, corolle basin amplexante, calycem multoties 
superans: foliolis 16-20, setaceis, liberis, approximatis, subconniventibus. 
Calyx minutus, 5-dentatus, membranaceus. Petala cuneato-spathulata, obliqua, 
limbo horizontaliter patente. Colwmna staminea elongata, cylindracea. Anthere 
30-40, duplici serie insertee. Stigmata 10. Capsula pentacocca, “ coccis clausis 
mucilagine viscidulo illinitis.” 
Lopimt1a malacophylla. 
Loprmra malacophylla. Mart. in Nov. Act. Bonn. v.11. p.96. De Cand. Prodr. 
v. 1. p. 458. 
Stpa malacophylla. Link et Otto, Ic. Hort. Berol. t. 30. 
Pavonia velutina. S¢. Hil. Fl. Bras. Merid. v.1. p. 233. 
Sent from New Grenada by Mr. Purdie, to the Royal Gardens 
of Kew, where it flowers freely during the winter and spring 
months, and is far from being unornamental. There is a pecu- 
liar aspect in this plant among the Malvacee, which seems to 
confirm the correctness of Martius’s views in making of it a new 
genus; although St. Hilaire, in his valuable ‘ Flora Brasilia 
meridionalis,’. refers it, and perhaps with justice, to Pavonia. A 
casual inspection, indeed, would lead us to take the involucre of 
the flower for a calyx, as Link and Otto have done, and then we 
appear to have the characters of Sida. But a more careful inves- 
tigation shows that the supposed calyx is a true involucre of many 
Setaceous leaflets, which for a time cohere, apparently in conse- 
quence of the copious hairs, and afterwards become distinct ; 
and within it will be seen the minute cup-shaped calyx, so 
small, indeed, that but for its situation, external with regard to 
the corolla, it might be taken for a hypogynous gland. 
Descr. A shrub, three to five feet high in our stove, with 
rounded, downy, herbaceous dranches. Leaves rather ample, 
APRIL Ist, 1848. 
