314 MALVACEAE. Sphceralcea. 



Coulter, then by Schott, Lemmon, &c. ; common at Maricopa, Gray & Farlow.^ One of the 

 transitions to Matvastruni. 



H h- Perennial (?) with carpels almost as in Mulvastrum, reniform, uniovulate, deeply 



reticulate upon the sides ; the upper sterile portion relatively minute and inconspicuous, 

 incurved, muticous. 

 S.* (?) Orcuttii, Rose. Finely tomentose and canescent throughout, 2 to 3 feet high, 

 branched above : leaves petiolate, ovate-oblong, slightly 3-lobed ; lobes broad and rounded, 

 barely crenulate or entire, the middle one much the longest, the basal sometimes obscure : 

 flowers small, closely grouped in and shortly racemose from the upper axils, becoming at 

 the summits of the brandies interruptedly subspicate : calyx about 2| to 3 lines in length : 

 corolla 4 lines long, vermilion, drying purplish : carpels in a depressed-globose stellate- 

 pubescent head, not much over a line in length. — Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. i. 289. — Near 

 Canso Creek in the Colorado Desert, California, Orcutt. An anomalous species, which, 

 except for its obvious affinities to several Sphieralcece, could with equal propriety be referred 

 to Malvustrum. 



H^ -)— -1— Perennials, mostly with lignescent roots : upper and mostly empty thin and 

 smooth half of mature carpel moderately incurved or erect : species of difficult discrimi- 

 nation, at least without mature fruit. 

 ++ Leaves all or mainly palmately or pedately parted : mature carpels very blunt, rarely 

 with an obscure mucro, occasionally 2-seeded : petals brick-red or orange-scarlet. 

 S. pedatifida, Gray. Cinereous-puberulent or stellular-hirsutulous, a foot or two high : 

 stems slender, often loosely branched : leaves with linear or when wider with pinnately 

 lobed divisions : petals quarter to half inch long : mature carpels strongly rugose or even 

 tuberculate on the back, barely 2 lines long. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 291. Malvastrum 

 pedatijidum, Gray, PI. Lindh. pt. 2, 160, PI. Wright, i. 17, & ii. 20. Sidalcea atacosa, 

 Buckley, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1861, 449. — On the Rio Grande from El Paso downward, and 

 at San Antonio, S. Texas ; first coll. by Wright. (Adj. Mex.) 



S. pedata, Torr. Silvery-canescent with very short and soft stellular pubescence, a span 

 to 2 feet high, rather stout : leaves with cuneate and incisely lobed divisions (sometimes nar- 

 rower) : petals half inch to almost inch long : mature carpels nearly of the preceding but 

 obscurely rugose or reticulated on the back. — Torr. in Gray, PI Fendl. 23, & PI. Wright, i. 

 17 (name only) ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 291. Sida grossularia'/olia, Hook. & Arn. 

 Bot. Beech. 326 ; therefore Malvastrum grossularicefolium, Gray, PI. Fendl. 21. M. coccineum, 

 Gray, 1. c, partly (no. 81), & PI. Wright, i. 16. ? il/. coccineum, var. grossidariafoJium ,'^ and 

 some of Sphceralcea Emori/i, Wats. Bot. King Exp. 47, 48. — W. borders of Texas and New 

 Mexico to S. Arizona and N. W. Nevada ; first coll. by Frimont. Smaller forms much 

 resembling Malvastrum coccineum, except in the fruit. Malva Creeana, Graham, Bot. Mag. 

 t. 3698, if N. American, probably came from this, perhaps through hybridization with some- 

 thing else. Passes into 



Var. angustiloba, Gray, with divisions of the leaves linear or narrowly oblanceolate 

 and entire. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 292. Malvastrum coccineum, var.? Gray, PI. Wright. 

 i. 17. — W. Texas to Arizona, Wright, Schott, &c. 



++ ++ Leaves undivided, at most obtusely 3-.5-lobed, roundish, mostly cordate. 

 = Canescent, even on the calyx, with short and close stellular pubescence, not lanate- 

 tomentose : carpels wholly muticous, subcoriaceous on the back to the rounded summit, 

 within fully half smooth and thin. 



S. Munroana, Spach. Leafy to the top, a foot or two high, minutely canescent : leaves 

 crenately toothed or sometimes incised : inflorescence mostly thyrsoid-glomerate : petals red 

 (usually scarlet, but sometimes rose-red), only half inch long: calyx 2 or 3 lines long, not 

 surpassing the depressed fruit : mature carpels only a line or two long, oval-reniform. — 



^ Also W. Mex., Palmer, Hartman. 



2 Some of Dr. Watson's specimens from the Humboldt Mfs., Nevada (no. 196, in part), have much 

 larger flowers (calyx-lobes 5 lines in length), and are probably distinct, yet in default of fruit even 

 their generic affinities are somewhat doubtful. 



