MALVACEAE. 263 



petals obovate, bright yellow, about as long as the sepals; capsule oblong, 

 densely tomentose, obtuse, 4-celled, as long as the curved pedicels or longer, 

 about 6 mm. thick. 



A common shrub in pastures, coppices and scrub-lands, throughout the archi- 

 pelago from Abaco, Great Bahama and Andros to Grand Turk and Inagua : West 

 Indies; Mexico to tropical South America. Recorded by Dolley as Ccnchrus hirsutus. 

 Woolly Corchorus. Mallet. Jack Switch. 



3. TRIUMFETTA L. Sp. PI. 444. 1753. 

 Herbs or low shrubs, with alternate broad petioled leaves, and yellow 

 clustered flowers, axillary or opposite the leaves. Sepals 5. Petals 5, pitted 

 at the base, or wanting in some species. Stamens numerous, borne on an 

 elongated receptacle, the filaments filiform, the anthers introrse. Ovary borne 

 in the cup-shaped top of the receptacle, 2-5-celled; stigma 2-5-lobed; ovules 2 

 in each cavity. Capsule subglobose, echinate. [In honor of G. B. Triumfetti, 

 an Italian botanist.] About 70 species, of tropical and warm regions. Type 

 species: Triumfetta Lappula L. 



^- 1. Triumfetta semitriloba Jacq. Enum. 22. 1760. 



Triumfetta althacoides Lam. Encyel. 3: 420. 1791. 



Annual, stellate-tomentulose. Stems 1-1.5 m. tall, branched; leaves ovate, 

 rhombic or suborbicular in outline, 3-6 cm. long, serrate, angulate or often 

 3-lobed, rounded or truncate at the base ; petioles as long as the blades or 

 shorter; panicles narrow, elongated; sepals lanceolate, 5-6 mm. long, ap- 

 pendaged below the apex; petals cuneate-spatulate, slightly pubescent at the 

 base ; stamens often 15 ; fruit 1-5 mm. in diameter, 2-celled, copiously prickly, 

 the prickles about as long as the diameter of the body, hooked at the apex. 



A weed in waste and cultivated land, Abaco. Andros, New Providence, Eleu- 

 thera and Watling's Island : Bermuda ; Florida ; West Indies ; continental tropical 

 America. A species represented by many races, differing in leaf-form and in minor 

 intermixed characters. Burr Bosh. 



Family 2. MALVACEAE Neck. 



Mallow Family. 



Herbs or shrubs (sometimes trees in tropical regions), with alternate 

 leaves. Stipules small, deciduous. Flowers regular, usually perfect, often 

 large. Sepals 5 (rarely 3 or 4), more or less united, usually valvate; 

 calyx often bracted at the base. Petals 5, hypogynous, convolute. 

 Stamens co, hypogynous, forming a central column around the pistil, 

 united with the bases of the petals; anthers 1-celled. Ovary several- 

 celled; styles united below, distinct above, and generally projecting beyond 

 the stamen-column, mostly as many as the cavities of the ovary. Fruit 

 capsular (rarely a berry), several-celled, the carpels falling away entire or 

 else loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds reniform. globose or obovoid ; embryo 

 curved; cotyledons large, plicate or conduplicate. About 45 genera and 

 900 species, widely distributed. 



Fruit of several or many radlately arranged carpels which mostly separate from each 

 other at maturity. 

 Carpels as mnny as the stigmas. 

 Carpels _' several-seeded. 



Involucre present. 1. Phymosia, 



