V 



348 The Flora of Sonora. [zoe 



color as they wither. In the canons is Vitex mollis, a tree that is 

 often planted in the gardens of Hermosillo, and many other plants 

 interesting botanically, among which the following, which seem to 

 have been undescribed, were found: — 



Abutilon (Wissadula) cinctum. Perennial, 4-6 dm. high, 

 stems slender, diffusely branching, white, with a thin appressed to- 

 mentum: leaves cordate-ovate, crenate-serrate, acute, on slender 

 pedicels of about the same length, upper surface appressed pubescent, 

 pubescence of the lower mixed with stellate hairs: flowers solitary 

 on stout pedicels shorter than the petioles, not jointed: bracts linear- 

 oblong, caducous: calyx cuneate at base, 10-angulate, cleft less than 

 half its length into five lanceolate acute lobes, covered with long 

 spreading hairs, which also occur sparingly on petioles, peduncles, 

 and on the margins and veins of the leaves: corolla ^-2 dm. broad, 

 ■ light-purple or lilac, segments cuneate-obovate, inequilateral, twice 

 the length of calyx, tomentose in the angles, erose at summit: 

 stamineal column very short, horizontal: stamens Yi the length of 

 the petals; anthers by the unusual development of the double sep- 

 tum, spuriously two-celled, developing a large quantity of mucus 

 when wetted: ovary 3-celled; ovules three in each cell, the two up- 

 per collateral; styles three, capitate, united only at base, minutely 

 and sparsely stellate hairy; carpels three, rounded at apex, loculi- 

 cidally-dehiscent to the base within, two-thirds the length without, 

 constricted below the middle by a callous ring which is higher ante- 

 riorly and posteriorly than at the sides; upper seeds smooth, lower 

 conformed in shape to the cavity, tuberculate punctate at the sides, 

 and crowned by a hirsute ring; radicle superior. 



This plant hardly belongs to the genus Wissadula, yet according 

 to Grisebach's Flora of the West Indies, it would be included in the 

 Wissadula section of Abutilon. The constriction between the upper 

 and lower cells is not very apparent externally and does not amount 

 to occlusion of the lower, but insomuch as it approaches Abutilon 

 weakens Wissadula. The shortening of the stamineal column the 

 tricarpellary ovary and collateral ovules occur in other species of 

 Abutilon. It was collected near Las Durasnillas, Sonora, Mexico. 



Anisacanthus abditus. Perennial, the few stems virgate, in- 

 durated herbaceous, bearing short branches, leaves and flowers above, 

 the whole plant minutely puberulent and abounding in stipitate 



