316 MALVACEAE. Sphm-alcea. 



tion from the axis cohering by their sides and held by a short thread which at length 

 commonly peels off from the base of the dorsal suture (and when detached sometimes goes 

 with the carpel, sometimes is left on the receptacle) : perennial herbs. 



-t— Carpels canescent or glabrate on the back : leaves comparatively small, not maple-like. 



++ Lanceolate to linear, not lobed, rarely even incised, short-petioled. 



S. angustifolia, Don. Subcanescent with somewhat scurfy pubescence, 2 to 5 feet high, 

 very leafy tliroughout : leaves 2 to 5 inches long, quarter to full inch wide, thickly and 

 irregularly crenulate, lower occasionally subhastately incised near base: flowers clustered 

 and short-pedicelled in most axils of the brandies : petals rose-red, half to three fourths inch 

 long : calyx little surpassing the globose umbilicate fruit : mature carpels in the tyjjical 

 species oblong, 2 lines or more long, rounded at summit, thinnish and smooth throughout, 

 or basal portion very slightly rugulose. — Syst. i. 465; Spach, Hist. Veg. iii. 353; Beuth. 

 PI. Hartw. 7; Gray, PI. Fendl. 23, & PI. Wright, i. 21 ; Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. .331. 

 Malva angustifolia, Cav. Diss. ii. 64, t. 20, f. 3, & Ic. t. 68 ; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 2839. 

 SphoToma anijusti/olium, Schlecht. Linnoaa, xi. 353. (Only Mexican.) 



Var.* violacea, J. B. Davy. Leaves somewhat narrower: petals violet-purple: 

 carpels (as in the type) destitute of raucros. — Erythea, iii. 118. — Banks of the Rio Grande 

 at Painted Cave, Texas, J. Burtt Davy, no. 36. 



Var. CUSpidata, Gray. Leaves mostly smaller and narrower : petals quarter to 

 third inch long, red : carpels narrower, tipped with an erect cusp or nmcro (sometimes very 

 short or partly deciduous, sometimes a persistent awn of a line in length, divided into two 

 at dehiscence), the short basal portion below the excision either slightly or conspicuously 

 rugose-reticulated on the sides. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 293. S. stellata, Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. i. 228. S. angustifolia, var.. Gray, PI. Wright. 1. c. ; Wats. 1. c. Sida stellata, Torr. Ann. 

 Lye. N. Y. ii. 171. — Texas to Arizona and S. Colorado; ^ first coll. by James. (Adj. Mex.) 



++ ++ Leaves of oblong or roundish outline, often cordate, mostly 3-5-lobed, sometimes 

 more dissected: cusps of the carpels directed more or less outwardly. 



= Leaves thickish, rugose and undulate : carpels not at all rugose-reticulated. 



S. Bmoryi, Torr. A foot or two high, stout, suffrutescent, branching, leafy to top, and 

 with mostly axillary subsessile flowers : pubescence f urfuraceous-tomentose, canescent and 

 turning ferruginous : leaves from roundish-subcordate and obtusely 3-lobed to subhastate- 

 oblong (inch or two long), rugose and plicate-veiny above with uudulate-crisped margins: 

 calyx mostly half inch long : petals brick-red, three fourths inch long : fruit about hemi- 

 spherical, tomentose outside ; mature carpels fully 3 lines long, ovate-reniform, of rather firm 

 texture throughout, smooth on the sides quite to base, at least not at all reticulated, apex a 

 bipartite cusp. — Torr. in Gray, PI. Fendl. 23, & PI. Wright, i. 21, only partly of others. — 

 Arizona, Valley of the Gila, Emory, Parry. (Adj. Chihuahua, Mex., Gregg, Thiirher.) 



= = Leaves thinner, not rugose : mature carpels more or less rugose-reticulated on the 

 sides of the lower portion ; fruit more elevated : species perhaps confluent. 



S. Fendleri, Gray. From green and minutely stellular-pubescent or glabrate to cinereous- 

 puberulent or subcanescent: stems 2 to 5 feet high, leafy nearly to the thyrsoid-paniculate 

 inflorescence: leaves ovate-oblong or subhastate, or lower I'oundish and subcordate, nearly 

 all incised or lobed, some deeply 3-cleft and the lobes incised : petals rose-red, not over half 

 inch long : calyx 2 or barely 3 lines long, shorter than the mature ovoid and truncate fruit : 

 mature carpels 2 lines long, ovate and slightly excised, distinctly cuspidate, the short lower 

 portion rather strongly rugose-reticulated. — PI. Wright, i. 21, ii. 21. 6'. miniata. Gray, PI. 

 Fendl. 19, & Gen. 111. ii. 70, t. 127, excl. syn. S. incana 1 var. ohlougifolia, Gray, PI. Wright. 

 ii. 21. S. incana, var. Fendleri, Wats. Cat. PI. W^i^eler Rep. 7. — Mountains of W. Texas 

 to New Mexico and Arizona, apparently reaching to the Rio Grande ; first coll. by Fendler. 



S. incana, Torr. a foot or two high, diffusely branched, velvety-canescent with fine and 

 very close pubescence : leaves (half inch to inch or more long) cordate or subcordate and 

 obtusely 3-lo])ed. rarely hastate- or lanceolate-oblong, usually 3-lobed or -cleft, the lobes from 

 obscurely crenulate to obtusely incised : inflorescence sometimes axillary -clustered, commonly 



1 Also eastward to Hamilton Co., Kansas, Hitchcock. 



