Spheralcea. | MALVACE (Harv.) 165 
_ IV. SPHERALCEA, S. Hil. 
Involucel of 3 (or 2) narrow leaflets. Staminal-column antheriferous 
at the multifid summit. St¢gmata capitellate, as many as the carpels. 
Ovules 2-3 in each carpel. Fruit sub-globose, of many compressed, 
two-valved, dehiscing, 2—3-seeded carpels, united in a ring round a 
central torus, from which they slowly separate. Gray, Gen. Vol. 2. p. 
69. t. 127. Endl Gen. 5272. 
Herbaceous or shrubby plants, chiefly natives of North and South America, and 
most numerous in Central America. There are at least two, and perhaps three 
Cape species, formerly referred to Malva, from which genus the present is known by 
its capitellate stigmas and 2-3-ovuled carpels. Leaves often deeplycut. Involucel 
frequently of setaceous, deciduous leaflets, but well develo and persistent in 
the Cape species. Flowers flesh-coloured or purple, never w. Name, opaipa, 
a globe, and alcea, an ancient name of the mallow. : 
1. S. elegans (Don, Dict. 1. p. 465.) ; sub-herbaceous, decumbent, 
stellato-lanuginous ; leaves deeply three-lobed, or tripartite, the lobes 
cuneate, inciso-pinnatifid, undulate, stellato-tomentose, bluntly toothed; 
stipules ovate ; peduncles axillary, one-flowered ; invol. leaflets linear, 
obtuse, shorter than the bellshaped, densely tomentose calyx, whose segments 
are ovate-acuminate ; fruit globose, stellato-pubescent, of 20-25 carpels ;_ . 
seeds glabrous. Malva elegans, Cav. Diss. t. 16. f. 3. DC. Prod. 1. p. 
435. £.¢Z.! 289; also M. anomala, E. & Z.! 290., M. venosa, E. & 
Z.! 287, and M. rugosa, E, & Z, 288, non DC. M. striata, E. Mey. ! 
Has. Mountains near Tulbagh ; River Zonderende, Assagaiskloof and between 
Kochman’s kloof and Gauritz River, Z. & Z./ Near Ezelsfontein and on the Roode- 
berg, Drege! (Herb. T.C.D., Hook., Sond.) 
Root and bases of stems woody. Stems numerous, procumbent or spreading, 2 
feet long or more, not much branched. Leaves rather distant, on petioles of their 
own length. Flowers from the axils of the upper leaves, usually on short, simple 
stalks, large, pale, with dark purple veins. Calyx cleft midway. Sometimes the 
whole plant is white with dense, soft, stellate hairs ; sometimes more glabrous. 
Ovules 3 in each carpel ; stigmas minutely capitellate. 5 
2. S. Dregeana (Harv.); suffruticose, patently hairy and lanuginose, 
with long, sub-simple hairs ; leaves oblong, deeply three-lobed, undu- 
late, the terminal lobe longest, inciso-pinnatifid, villoso-lanuginous, 
bluntly-toothed ; stipules ovate, acute ; peduncles axillary, one-flowered, 
invol. leaflets adnate with the calyx-tube, broadly oblong-lanceolate, calloso- 
denticulate, longer than the villous calyx, whose narrow segments are much 
acuminate; ovary glabrous, the carpels 2-3 ovuled. Drege, 7323! An- 
sodontea Dregeana, Presl, Bot. Bem. p. 18. 
 _Has. Piquetberg, on stony and rocky table-land, 1-2000 f. Drege/ (Herb. Hook., 
Sond.). ; 
heinasbting S. elegans, but readily known by its very different calyx and involucel. 
The calyx lobes are nearly lanceolate, and the involucral leaves spring from the 
summit of the calyx-tube, and look like an outer row of sepals. The flowers are 
smaller than in 8. elegans. 
Malwa divaricata, E, Mey.! in Herb. Drege, not of Andrews, appears, by a very 
-bad specimen in Herb. Sond., to belong to an undescribed i of Sphaerdliea. Tho 
stems are slender and glabrescent ; the leaves oblong, deeply 3-lobed, inciso-pinnatifid 
and stellato-tomentose ; the stipules ovate ; peduncles axillary, one-flowered, longer 
than the leaves ; invol. leaflets adnate, oblongo-lanceolate an longer than the act va 
