MALLOW FAMILY 83 



equaling number of carpels. Carpels 1-celled, leathery or parchment-like, beaked, 2-valved 

 at apex and down the back, persistent, with 1-9 reniform seeds. The upper seeds ascend- 

 ing, the lower pendulous or horizontal. [Name used by Avicenna, an Arabian physician, 

 for some plant.] 



A genus of about 110 species of tropical and warm-temperate regions. Ten or 12 species are native or 

 introduced in the United States, chiefly in the southern and southwestern states. Type species, Abiitilon Theo- 

 phrasti Medic. 



Leaves orbicular, 10-20 cm. wide, velvety; flowers yellow, 12-20 mm. wide; introduced annual. 



1. A. Theophrasti. 

 Leaves ovate-triangular, 1-4 cm. wide, stellate-canescent; flowers brick-red or pink, 6-10 mm. wide; desert 

 mountain perennial. 2. A. parvulum. 



1. Abutilon Theophrasti Medic. Velvet Leaf. Fig. 3159. 



Sida Abutilon L. Sp. PI. 685. 1753. 

 Abutilon Theophrasti Medic. Malv. 28. 1787. 

 Abutilon Avicennae Gaertn. Fruct. 2: 251. pi. 135. 1791. 

 Abutilon Abutilon Rydb. Bot. Surv. Neb. 3:27. 1894. 



A Stout branching velvety-pubescent annual 1-2 m. high. Leaves ovate-orbicular, cordate, 

 entire or slightly serrate, apex acuminate; petioles 10-20 cm. long; stipules caducoUs; flowers 

 axillary, solitary or 2 to several on stout, axillary peduncles 1-5 cm. long, bright yellow ; calj-x- 

 lobes densely velvety-tomentose, ovate, acute to short-acuminate, 6-10 mm. long ; petals obovate, 

 6-9 mm. long, truncate to shallowly emarginate; fruit discoid-orbicular, 2-3 cm. broad, 1 cm! 

 high; carpels 12-15, hirsute, 2-valved; beaks spreading, 3-5 mm. long, acuminate, the tips sharply 

 hooked inward ; seeds reniform, gray-brown, sparsely and minutely stellate-puberulent. 



Rather a common escape in North America as far west as Texas and Oklahoma. Less frequent in Wash- 

 ington, and reported from Santa Rosa, Riverside, and San Diego in California. Type locality: India. Aug.-Oct. 



2. Abutilon parvulum A. Gray. Dwarf Abutilon. Fig. 3160. 



Abutilon parvulum A. Gray, Smiths. Contr. 3°: 21. 1852. 



Cespitose herbaceous perennial from a woody rootstock, stellate-canescent throughout ; stems 

 slender, wiry, 1-3 dm. long. Leaves 1-4 cm. broad, slightly longer, obscurely 3-lobed, ovate- 

 cordate to triangular-cordate, irregularly but distinctly serrate, the lower surface paler than the 

 upper ; stipules 1-2 mm. long, caducous ; flowers axillary, solitary, brick-red to pink, 6-10 mm. 

 wide ; pedicels slender, 10-25 mm. long ; calyx 4-5 mm. high, the lobes ovate-lanceolate, reflexed 

 in fruit ; petals 3-5 mm. long ; fruit 6-8 mm. high, densely stellate-puberulent ; carpels 5-8, with 

 short acute, erect beaks 1-2 mm. long; seeds dark brown, minutely puberulent. 



Rocky slopes. Lower and Upper Sonoran Zones; from the Providence Mountains, California, through 

 Arizona and New Mexico to southern Colorado, western Texas, and northern Sonora. Type locality: calcareous 

 hills of the San Felipe and San Pedro Rivers, Texas. March-April. 



2. HORSFORDIA A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 22: 296. 1887. 



Erect shrubs with dense stellate yellow- or gray-green pubescence. Leaves thick, 

 orbicular-cordate to lanceolate, entire to finely denticulate or crenulate. Peduncles axil- 

 lary, 1 -flowered or paniculately few-flowered. Involucel none. Corolla yellow, orange or 

 pink. Fruit of 8-12 coalescent carpels that disjoin at maturity, these 3-ovuled, 1-3-seeded, 

 2-valved above with 2 erect, slightly spreading wings, the upper portion empty, thin and 

 smooth, the lower firm and strongly reticulate. Seeds reniform. [Name in honor of F. H. 

 Horsford, a New England plant collector.] 



A genus of 3 species of the southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico. Type species, Sida alata 

 S. Wats. 



Flowers pink, 15-22 mm. broad; leaves chiefly ovate, slightly viscid; tomentum sordid gray-green. 



1. H. alata. 

 Flowers yellow or orange, 10-12 mm. broad; leaves chiefly lanceolate, not viscid; tomentum yellowish. 



2. H. Nezvberryi. 



1. Horsfordia alata (S. Wats.) A. Gray. Pink Velvet-mallow. Fig. 3161. 



Sida alata S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 20: 356. 1885. 

 Horsfordia alata A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 22: 297. 1887. 

 Horsfordia Palmeri S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 24:40. 1889. 



Shrub 1-3.5 m. high, densely rough-pubescent throughout. Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 



subcordate, 1.5-7 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. broad, sordid-tomentose ; petioles 0.5-2 cm. long; stipules 



triangular-lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm. long, caducous; flowers axillary, solitary or in 2-5-flowered 



panicles ; peduncles slender, about 1 cm. long ; pedicels slightly stouter, 2-6 mm. long ; calyx 5-7 



mm. long at anthesis, the lobes ovate-acuminate, densely stellate-pubescent; petals obovate, 10-12 



mm. long, _ rose-pink; carpels 10-12, empty portion dehiscent early, forming oblong, obtuse, 



scarious wings three times as long as the reticulate seminiferous part ; two upper ovules abortive ; 



seeds reniform, dark, minutely and sparsely puberulent. 



Rocky hillsides and along desert washes. Lower Sonoran Zone; at Coral Reef Ranch, Coachella Valley, 

 Riverside County, California, and in southern Arizona, Sonora, and Lower California. Type locality: north- 

 western Sonora. March-April. 



