In rocky or silty soils, on alkaline floodlands, along irrigation canals and in 

 depressions in s.w. Okla., w. and n.w. Tex., through N.M. and Ariz., Mar.-Oct.; 

 from Wash, and Ida., s. to Mex. and e. to Kan., s.w. Okla. and Tex. 



2. Sida rhonibifolia L. Axocatzin. 



Plant herbaceous or shrubby, to about 2 m. high, the stems minutely stellate- 

 pubescent; leaves short-petiolate, varying from rhombic-oblong to ovate-cuneate or 

 oblanceolate, obtuse to rounded or subacute at apex, cuneate to rounded at base 

 and usually minutely cordate at the very base, to 8 cm. long and 4 cm. wide, pale 

 and cinerous-puberulent beneath, green and subglabrous above, serrate or serrulate; 

 stipules setaceous, caducous; pedicels more or less elongated; calyx 5-7 mm. long, 

 minutely cinereous-puberulent, the base (at maturity) with 5 to 10 callous-thickened 

 nerves, the lobes broadly ovate and acuminate; petals pale-yellow to orange-yellow, 

 about 6 mm. long, sometimes red at base; carpels 10, smoothish, subulate 2-awned 

 or merely acute. S. alba Cav. 



In sandy-clayey soils in meadows, brushlands, low open woods and alluvial soils 

 in s.e. Okla. and e. third of Tex., apparently isolated in s. Ariz., throughout the 

 year; from N.C. to Fla. and Tex.; widespread, mostly in the trop. 



7. Anoda Cav. 



About 1 species that are confined to the Western Hemisphere. 

 1. Anoda cristata (L.) Schlecht. 



Plant branched from near base, erect, to about 8 dm. high, sparsely hirsute with 

 mostly simple hairs; leaves petiolate, deltoid to triangular-ovate or -lanceolate, 

 truncate to broadly cuneate at base, acute to acuminate at apex, occasionally hastate 

 or subtrilobate at the base, the margins either irregularly dentate or entire; flowers 

 solitary on long peduncles in the axils; calyx with triangular-lanceolate acuminate 

 spreading lobes to 15 mm. long, often purplish-red; petals purple, commonly cunei- 

 form and retuse, 1-2.5 cm. long; fruit depressed, hemispheric or disklike; carpels 

 15 to 20, rather conspicuously beaked, hispid, the dorso-basal portion wholly thin- 

 scarious and veinless and with slender midnerve. the sides or partitions wholly 

 obliterated in the breaking up of the fruit; seeds naked, puberulent. A. lavaterioides 

 Medic, A. hastata of auth. 



In moist meadows and along streams, on gravelly banks and in open woods from 

 w. Tex. to s. Ariz., July-Nov.; also s. to S.A. 



The leaves of this species are exceedingly variable, even upon the same indi- 

 vidual. Our plant usually has the upper leaves elongated and conspicuously hastate. 



Fam. 88. Sterculiaceae Bartl. Cacao Family 



Trees, shrubs or herbs, sometimes scandent, the pubescence chiefly of stellate 

 hairs; leaves alternate, simple or rarely compound, usually stipulate; flowers large 

 or small, mostly in axillary cymes, perfect or unisexual, regular or sometimes 

 irregular; calyx persistent, gamosepalous, usually 5-parted; petals 5 or none, 

 hypogynous, free or united with the stamen tube; stamens 5, connate at least at 

 the base, the tube commonly with 5 staminodia, the 2- or 3-celled anthers borne in 

 the sinuses; fruit dry or rarely baccate, usually 5-celled, variously dehiscent. 



About 700 species in 60 genera, mainly tropical and Old World. The seeds of the 

 important tropical American tree, Theobroma cacao L., are the source of cocoa 

 and chocolate. The Chinese parasol-tree, Firmiana simplex W. Wight, is cultivated 

 in central and south Texas, but it apparently does not occur as an escape. 



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