64 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 
- Respecting the indigenous species, ( G. herbaceum ) it is unnecessary to dilate, that one 
: ; he warmer portions of the old world, 
from the south of Europe, the northern limit of its cultivation, through the whole of the torrid 
zone, and as being the species first and best known to mankind generally. 
tural orders considerable 
In a culti- 
vated genus : those Sida and ution are scarcely less remarkable among the 
uncultivated ones. Some species of each are common t the tropical regions of both the 
old and new world, and have in nearly all such cases received d 
st Teceived distinct names according as they 
happen to come from the one or other. Did the multiplication stop there, we would have little 
to complain of, as the geographical character would of itself, in the absence of botanical ones 
serve to distinguish them, and_ prevent any serious confusion, but unfortunately it does 
not ; our Abutilon indicum for example has j on most inade- 
quate grounds, been split into two, viz. 4. indiewm and J. asiaticum, and has besides at 
different times received a variety of other names, suchas Sida populifolia, Sida Eteromischos 
Sida Beloere, &c. but under how many more names it figures in tropical America and 
her islands is not easy to discover. 
~ Jn the discrimination of the genera of Malvacee, reference is principally had to the 
involucrum and fruit, and generally these, combined with habit, afford very permanent generic 
