OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 289 



MELIPHLEA, Zucc. PI. Nov. fasc. ii. 51, t. 9, is a good genus, 

 upon the characters assigned by its founder, except that the coahtiou 



-t- Not canescent, of 2-4-rayed or some simple hairs, on the stems strigose : 



calyx involucellate. 

 ** Annual, narrow-leaved, comparatively northern. 



M. ANGDSTUM, Gray, PI. Fendl. 22, & Man. 101. Although this is Sida his- 

 pida. Hook. Jour. Bot. i. 198 (from St. Louis), it can hardly be Pursh's plant, 

 said to have been collected in Georgia by Lyon, nor Elliott's plant of that name. 

 Yet it is possible, for M. anrjustum occurs as far east as Nashville, Tennessee, 

 and Lyon's explorations extended to the eastern border of that State. 

 ++ ++ Suflfrutescent perennials or in their most northern range becoming annual : 

 broader-leaved, tropical or subtropical species. 



M. RuGELii, Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 367. Probably introduced rather 

 than truly indigenous to S. Florida, where, however, it has thrice been collected ; 

 namely, by Rugel, in specimens distributed by Shuttleworth as Malm Americana, 

 L., var. ; by Garber ; and later by Curtiss, in whose distribution it is named Melo- 

 chia serrata. It is without doubt the Malva scoparia, Jacq. Collect, i. 59 & Ic. 

 Rar. t. 39, said to come from San Domingo, but not the plant of L'Heritier. 

 Discerning this, it was named M. corchorifolia, Desrousseaux in Lam. Diet. iii. 

 755, an excellent specific name, which should have been adopted ; but Mr.Watson 

 overlooked it on account of De CandoUe's reference of it as a synonym to M. 

 scabra. To go back to that now would be making a superfluous new name. We 

 possess no W. Indian specimens, but they are probably extant in the large her- 

 baria. The carpels are muticous, or with a mere vestige of a subapical cusp. 



M. TRicusPiDATUM, Gray, PI. Wright, i. 16, & Bot. Wilkes Ex. Exped., where 

 the synonymy is detailed. The wholly strigose (mainly Malpighiaceous) pubes- 

 cence, and the subapical and two dorsal cusps of the carpels, are characteristic. 



M. SCABRUM, Gray in Bot. Wilkes Ex. Exped. (excl. syn. Malva scoparia, Jacq. 

 Ic. Rar., which is M. corchorifolia, Desrous.), conies between this and the next. 

 It is not North American, but Dr. Palmer collected it in Mexico, it being the 

 M. tricuspidatum, var. bicuspidatum, Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 417. The 

 absence of the subapical cusp to the carpels is one of its characteristics ; the 

 pubescence, although roughish, is not strigose-appressed in the way of M. tri- 

 cuspidatum, but more stellular, and the leaves are more cuneate at base. 



••- •*- Subcanescent with close and minute stellular pubescence, no strigose pu- 

 bescence on the stems ; otherwise like the last preceding species. 



M. 8COPAEIDM, Gray in Bot. Wilkes Ex. Exped., 1. c. Malva scoparia, L'Her. 

 Stirp. t. 27. Flowers sessile or nearly so in the axils and barely subspicate at 

 end of branches: calyx canescent and lobes blunt: carpels 2-tuberculate on the 

 back, but no subapical cusp. Collected in Mexico by Berlandier and Gregg, 

 and within the U. S. in Arizona near Tucson by Pringle, distributed as M. tri- 

 cuspidatum. 



M. spicATUM, Gray, PI. Fendl. 22. Malva spicata, L. Spec. ed. 2 ; also M. 

 Americana, L. Spec. ed. 1, at least the plant of Breyn. Cent. 124, t. 57, on which 

 that species seems wholly to rest. M. spicata, ovata, and pulystachija, Cav. An 

 unmistakable species, not known within the U. S., but collected by Berlandier 

 at Matamoras on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. 



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