TAB. OGL , 
ABUTILON Darwinu. 
Native of South Brazil. 
Nat. Ord. Matvacez.—Tribe MALveR. 
Genus AsuTILon, Gertn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl., vol. i. p. 204). 
Asvutiton Darwinii; frutescens, molliter velutino-tomentosum, foliis petio- 
latis basi cordatis 5-9-nerviis, inferioribus late palmatim 5-fidis 
superioribus 3-fidis supremis integris ovatis, lobis triangularibus acu- 
minatis crenulatis v. denticulatis, floribus in axillis solitariis v. 2-3-nis 
gracile pedunculatis nutantibus subsanguineo aurantiacis, nervis satu- 
ratioribus, calycis tomentosi tubo hemispherico, lobis triangulari-ovatis 
acuminatis enerviis petalis obovato-orbiculatis subdimidio brevioribus, 
carpellis numerosis (15—-20) vesicularibus. 
I received flowering specimens of this plant from my friend 
Mr. Darwin, in April last, with the information that he had 
raised it from seed transmitted by the learned German 
zoologist, Fritz Mueller, of Itzigahy, in St. Catherines, 8. 
Brazil, and that it forms a large, erect, handsome bush, 
loaded with flowers, and is very ornamental; also that it 
possesses the peculiarity of being, during the early part of its 
flowering season, absolutely sterile with its own pollen but 
fertile with the pollen of any other individual (of the same 
species); whilst later in the season it is capable of self- 
fertilization. : 
Referring to the Herbaria, I find beautiful dried specimens 
communicated by Dr. Fritz Mueller in 1869, with flowers 
fully two and a half inches diameter, (much larger than in the 
cultivated plant), and others gathered at a long antecedent 
date, namely, in 1836, by Tweedie, who found it in shady 
woods at the summit of St. Joveir. Dr. Mueller’s specimens 
are labelled as from Capivari, a locality presumably in the 
AvauUstT Ist, 1871. 
