MALVACEAE. 



233 



1. Abutilon Abutilon (L.) 

 Kusby. VELVET LEAF. INDIAN 

 MALLOW. (Fig. 256.) Annual, 

 stout, 3-7 high, densely velvety- 

 pubescent. Leaves long-petioled, 

 cordate, ovate-orbicular, 4'-12' 

 wide, dentate, or nearly entire, 

 acuminate, the point blunt ; flow- 

 ers yellow, about 10" broad; pe- 

 duncles shorter than the petioles; 

 head of fruit 10'' in diameter or 

 more; carpels 12-15, pubescent, 

 dehiscent at the apex, each valve 

 beaked by a slender awn. [Sida 

 Abutilon L.; Abutilon Avicennae 

 Gaertn.] 



Cultivated ground. Abundant 

 near Spanish Foint in 1909 and 

 1913, occasional elsewhere. Natur- 

 alized. Native of southern Asia. 

 Widely naturalized as a weed in the 

 United States. Flowers in summer 

 and autumn. 



Abutilon striatum Dicks., GARDEN ABUTILON, Brazilian, is a tall slender 

 nearly glabrous shrub with slender-petioled, nearly orbicular, sharply 3-5-lobed, 

 dentate, cordate leaves 3'-5' broad, and drooping long-peduncled red orange 

 red-veined flowers about li' long. Lefroy records it as common in gardens at 

 his time, but it is not much grown now. Several different races and hybrids 

 are in cultivation. 



2. MODIOLA Moench. 



Prostrate or ascending herbs, with palmately cleft or divided leaves, and 

 small axillary peduncled red flowers. Bracts of the involucre 3, distinct. 

 Calyx 5-cleft. Cavities of the ovary oo, 2-3-ovuled. Style-branches stigmatic 

 at the summit ; carpels 5-20, septate between the seeds, dehiscent into 2 valves 

 with awn-pointed tips, and aristate on the back. [Latin, from the likeness of 

 the fruit to the small Eoman measure, modiolus.] A monotypic American 

 genus. 



