Sprawling or climbing over rocks, trees and shrubs in chaparral, salt marshes 

 and open woodlands, in Okla. (Waterfall) , throughout most of Tex. but rare or 

 absent in the extreme e. part and in the Panhandle, May-Sept.; from Fla. to Tex. 

 and adj. Mex., n. to Mo. and Kan. 



Plants with simple undivided leaves are frequent in the Rio Grande Plains and 

 Valley. There seems to be no other difference, however, that would separate these 

 plants from the typical plants with trilobed or trifoliolate leaves. 



Fam. 87. Malvaceae Juss. Mallow Family 



Plants herbaceous or shrubby, rarely arborescent, with more or less mucilagi- 

 nous sap, usually pubescent with simple, stellate or forked hairs; leaves simple, 

 alternate, petioled, stipulate; flowers regular, perfect; calyx often subtended by 

 a calyxlike involucel; petals 5, hypogynous, convolute in the bud, asymmetric, 

 more or less united at base to the stamen column; stamens numerous, monadel- 

 phous; anthers 1 -celled, reniform; pollen grains large, spiny; carpels 3 or more, 

 1 -celled; style usually several-branched; fruit a loculicidal capsule or (in most 

 of the genera) the mature carpels separating from one another and from the 

 receptacle; seeds often pubescent. 



About 1,000 species in about 75 genera in tropical and temperate regions 

 throughout the world. 



A family of highly ornamental plants, with numerous species of Hibiscus, 

 Malva, Abutilon and Althaea under cultivation. It includes the cotton plants 

 (Gossypium spp.), the vegetable okra (Hibiscus esculentus L.) and the marsh- 

 mallow (Althaea officinalis L.), of Europe, whose mucilaginous root is used 

 in making the popular confection. 



Game birds, such as ducks and quail, are known to eat the seeds of some 

 species, especially in the genus Hibiscus. 



1. Fruit capsular, loculicidally dehiscent or indehiscent, the cells 5 or fewer, the 

 carpels remaining attached to one another and to the axis; stamen 

 tube usually not filamentiferous at the apex, usually dentate or 

 lobed; involucel usually present but sometimes much-reduced (2) 



1. Fruit a schizocarp, the carpels separating finally from one another and from 



the axis; stamen tube commonly filamentiferous at and often also 

 below the apex (3) 



2(1). Ovules solitary in each cell, ascending; capsule depressed, saliently 5-angled 

 3. Kosteletzkya 



2. Ovules 2 or more in each cell; capsule not depressed or (if lightly so) not 



saliently angled 4. Hibiscus 



3(1). Involucel of 3 bractlets (4) 



3. Involucel none (5) 



4(3). Ovules and seeds normally 3 in each carpel; stems erect and tall 



1. Iliamna 



4. Ovule and seed normally solitary in each carpel; stems prostrate and spreading 



on ground 5. Modiola 



5(3). Style branches filiform, longitudinally and introrsely stigmatic; carpels 

 reniform to subreniform 2. Sidalcea 



5. Style branches terminating in a capitate or truncate stigma (6) 



1113 



