BYTTNERIACE^E. 105 



About 2 feet in Iieiglit: branches round, tomentoso-hirsute. 

 Leaves several together, shortly petiolated, li inch long, ovate, 

 scarcely cordate, irregularly serrated, nerved, ferrugineo-hir- 

 suto-tomentose : petiole 4 of an inch in length. Flowers light 

 purple, collected in clusters of about 6, sessile, arranged to form 

 a terminal interrupted spike. Outer calyx of 3 linear green 

 hirsute leaflets, partially united together at the base. Calyx 5- 

 cleft, hirsute ; divisions acute. (Both the involucellum and 

 calyx have, intermixed with the longer hairs, short ones bearing 

 a capitate ruby-coloured glandule). Stamens united into a 

 tube : anthers white. Styles 5, filiform, longer than the sta- 

 mens ; stigmata white, papillose. Capsule subglobose, 5-celled, 

 with the remains of the styles forming a central apicula. 



VII. Waltheria. 



Calyx 5-ficl furnished with a lateral 3-leaved de- 

 ciduous involucellum. Petals 5. Style 1. Stigma 

 pencilled. Capsule 1-celled, 2-valved, 1-seeded. 



According to De Candolle, the carpels are originally 5 in 

 number, but are reduced to 1 by abortion. Named, in memory 

 of Augustin Frider. Walther, Professor of medicine at Leipsig, 

 author of a Botanical work, entitled Hortus Proprius, 1735. 



1. Waltheria Americana. Shrubby TValtheria, 



Leaves ovate or oval plicate unequally dentate to- 

 mentose, capitules stalked. 



Malva Americana abutili folio, flore luteo spicato, foliis hir- 

 sutioribus, Slocme, II. 218. — Waltheria fruticosa subhirsuta, 

 Browne, 276. — Waltheria arborescens, Cav. diss. VI. 170. f. 1. 

 — W. Indica, Jacq. Ic. Rar. I. 130. — W. Americana, Swartz, 

 Obs. '25i,.—JDe Cand. Prod. I. 492. 



HAB. Common in dry grass-pieces. 



FL. Towards the end of the year. 



Shrubby : branches sub-erect, terete, not unfrequently of a 

 reddish colour, hirsute with stellated hairs. Leaves alternate, 

 ovate, or the larger ones oval and subcordate, plicate, unequally 

 subserrato-dentate, nerved, tomentose on both sides: petiole 

 terete, tomentose. Stipules setaceous, ciliated, deciduous. 

 Peduncles axillary, solitary, very short or more or less elon- 

 gated so as to exceed the leaf in length, bearing a crowded 

 head of small yellow flowers. Leaves of the involucellum 

 lineari-lanceolate, ciliated, marescent. Calyx persistent, exter- 

 nally tomentose ; segments acute. Petals spreading, rounded 

 at the apex, wedge-shaped at the base. Column of stamens 



