MALLOW FAMILY 483 



Bractlets slender or even filiform. 



Flowers cream-color; low decumbent herb 5. Sida. 



Flowers roseate, rose-purple, yellow or white ; shrubs or herbs. 



Carpels with 2 ovules, the ovules separated by transverse partitions; herbs 



6. MODIOLA. 



Carpels with 1 to 3 ovules, without transverse septa ; shrubs or herbs 



7. SPHAERAIiCEA. 



Bractlets none. 



Carpels separating at maturity, the lower portion reticulate in fruit ; corolla salmon- 

 color; calyx erect in fruit 8. Horsfordia. 



Carpels remaining united and forming a capsule, not reticulate in fruit; corolla (in 

 ours) pink; calyx (in ours) reflexed in fruit _ 9. Abutilon. 



1. HIBISCUS L. Rose-Mallow 



Stout herbs or shrubs. Flowers showy, in ours solitary. Involucel consisting 

 of several to many slender bractlets. Stamen-column with anthers scattered along 

 the upper part but naked at the truncate 5-toothed summit. Ovary 5-celled with 



2 to many ovules in each cell. Capsule loculicidal. — Species 175, all continents, 

 mostly tropical. (Greek name for the Marsh Mallow, used by Dioscorides.) 



Leaf -blades cordate ; peduncles subterminal, 2 to 3 inches long, jointed near the middle, united 

 with the petiole at base; calyx cleft to the middle; seeds globose, glabrous, minutely 

 papillate 1. S. calif ornicus. 



Leaf -blades ovate ; peduncles mostly axillary, 1 to 9 lines long ; calyx cleft nearly to the base ; 

 seeds reniform, densely silky 2. E. denudatus. 



1. H. californicus Kell. Delta Rose-Mallow. Stems pubescent, cane-like, 



3 to 7 feet high; leaf -blades cordate, dentate, acuminate, 2^/2 to 4 inches long; 

 petioles II/2 to 2I/4 inches long; calyx campanulate, cleft to the middle, conspicu- 

 ously nerv^ed at maturity and filled by the capsule; corolla white or roseate, with 

 deep crimson center, 2^/2 to 4 inches long; capsule 1 to ll^ inches long. 



Low marshy places, 5 to 50 feet : lower Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. 

 Aug.-Sept, 



Loc3. — Stockton, W. P. Gibbons; Middle Eiver, Jepson 5696; Moorland, San Joaquin Co., 

 B. M. Filcher; Eio Vista, Jepson 14,049. 



Kefs. — Hibiscus caufornicus Kell. Proc. Cal. Acad. 4:292 (1872), type loc. Webbs Ldg., 

 San Joaquin Kiver, C. D. Gibbs; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 237 (1901), ed. 2, 257 (1911), Man. 

 626 (1925). 



2. H. denudatus Benth. Pale Face. Stems slender, woody at base, some- 

 what flexuose above, 1 to 2I/2 feet high; herbage densely and closely tomentose; 

 leaf -blades ovate, serrulate, I/2 to 1 inch long, short-petioled; flowers short-pe- 

 duncled in the axils and along the somewhat naked flexuose summit of the branches; 

 calyx 5-parted, canescent-tomentose; bractlets 3 to 7, setaceous, commonly less 

 than half as long as the calyx or almost obsolete; petals white or pale lavender, 

 often with a narrow rose band in center, % to 1 inch long; capsule acute, dehiscent 

 to the base, shorter than the calyx. 



Dry cafions and desert valleys, 100 to 1000 feet : Colorado Desert. East to 

 Texas, south to Lower California. Mar.-Aur. 



Locs. — Chuckwalla Wash, Eiverside Co., Schellenger 106 ; Chino Canon, Palm «prs. or San 

 Jacinto, M. F. Gilman 28 ; Devils Canon, Santa Rosa Mts. ; Palm Canon of San Ysidro, Jepson 

 8812; Yaqui Well, ne. San Diego Co., Jepson 12,515; Signal Mt., Abrams 3178, 



Eefs.— Hibiscus denudatus Benth. Bot. Sulph, 7, pi. 3 (1844), type loc. Magdalena Bay, 

 L. Cal., Hinds; Jepson, Man. 626 (1925). 



2. LAVATERA L. 



Ours shrubs with ample maple-like leaves and small caducous stipules. Flow- 

 ers showy, axillary, subtended by a 2 to 3-lobed involucel. Pedicels jointed above 

 the middle. Petals reflexed after anthesis, truncate or retuse, long-clawed. Styles 

 5 to 8. Fruit a depressed whorl of smooth 1-seeded carpels. — Species 20, mostly 



