Sphceralcea. MALVACEAE. 317 



more naked and racemose-paniculate : flowers of the preceding or often with longer calyx 

 surpassing the globose-ovoid fruit of fewer carpels, their cusps sometimes obsolete. — Torr. ' 

 in Gray, I'l. Feudl. 23, & PI. Wright, i. 21. — Plains of New Mexico and Arizona. (Adj. 

 Chihuahua, Mex., Wislizemis.) 



Var. dissecta, Gray. A form with small leaves deeply 3-.5-cleft or parted into obo- 

 vate or narrowly spatulate usually 2-3-lobed divisions : passing freely into the ordinary form. 



— PI. Wright, i. 21. S. Fendleri, var. dissecta, Watson, Bibl. Index, 143, partly. — New 

 Mexico and Arizona, Wright, Thurber, &c. 



S. W^rightii, Gray, a foot or two high, subcanescently tomentose with looser stellular 

 pubescence : stems simple, herbaceous, racemosely several-flowered at naked summit : leaves 

 loug-petioled, roundish-cordate (about inch long), thiunish, some lower ones crenately in- 

 cised, others 3-.5-lobed, or nearly parted and the cuneate divisions 2-3-lobe(l : petals ap- 

 parently purple and small : calyx-lobes barely equalling the hemispherical fruit of 12 to 15 

 carpels ; these minutely puberulent on the back, ovate-subreniform, 2 or 3 lines long, mu- 

 cronate-tipped, the short lower portion delicately but conspicuously reticulated on the sides. 



— PI. Wright, ii. 21. — On a mountain near Lake Santa Maria, Chihuahua, a little below 

 the U. S. and Mexican boundary, [Vrir/ht. 



S. Rusbyi, Gray. Stems a foot high from a lignescent base, slender, smooth and glabrous 

 or nearly so, spicately or racemosely few-several-flowered at the naked summit : leaves green, 

 slightly pubescent (less than inch in diameter), roundish in outline, all pedately parted and 

 divisions 3-5-cleft into narrow short lobes : petals red, quarter or third inch long : calyx 

 loosely and canescently pubescent; the lobes ovate, barely equalling the hemispherical fruit; 

 this nearly of preceding or shorter, and the carpels with obscure' mucronation and sides at 

 base obsoletely rugulose. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 293. — Near Prescott, Arizona, Rusbij, 

 no. 537. 



S. Cedrosensis, Kellogg, the fruit of which is unknown, from Cedros Island off Lower 

 California, is probably S. Emoriji, or possibly S. ambigua. 



-«— H— Carpels hirsute or hispid with long bristly hairs : leaves comparatively large, 3-7-cleft 

 as in maple ; cauline with ovate-acute and serrate lobes : tall herbs, green, but more or 

 less pubescent. 



S. acerif olia, Nutt. From stellately pubescent to glabrate : stems 2 to 6 feet high : leaves 

 2 to 6 inches long and wide : flowers clustered in upper axils and interruptedly spicate at 

 summit : pedicels usually shorter than calyx, and the ovate lobes of this shorter than or little 

 surpassing the mature fruit : petals rose-color varying to white, half inch to nearly inch 

 long : carpels obovate-oblong, thinnish, with smooth sides, 2-3-seeded. — Nutt. in Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. i. 228 ; i Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 5404 ; Wats. Bot King Exp. 48. S. rivularis, Torr. 

 in Gray, PI. Fendl. 23, & Bot. Wilkes Exped. 255. Malva rividaris, Dougl. in Hook. Fl. 

 Bor.-Am. i. 107 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 226. — Along streams, Rocky Mountains, from Dakota 

 to Colorado,^ N. Nevada, Washington, and Brit. Columbia ; first coll. by Douglas ; also near 

 Altorf, Kankakee Co., Illinois, E. J. Hill. 



S. longisepala, Torr. More slender : stems and stalks hirsute with long and spreading 

 scattered hairs : flowers sparse: peduncles or pedicels long and slender: calyx-lobes caudate- 

 acuminate, sometimes inch long, equalling the rose-colored petals : fruit, &c., nearly of the 



1 Torr. & Gray cite as .sj-n. ^^ Malva (Sphceroma) acerifaUd, Nutt.! mss.," but Nuttall's starred 

 label benrint; this nam« accompanies, at least in herb. Gray, a hirsute-pubescent sniooth-carpelled Mal- 

 vastrum, apparently a close ally of the S. African M. calycinum. It is evident that there has been 

 some confusion in labelling, probably in herb. Durand, whence the specimen comes. This should 

 not, however, in any way invalidate Sphceralcea acerifolia, readily recognizable from its excellent 

 characterization. 



2 Among the Colorado specimens of this species, Miss Alice Eastwood calls attention (Zoe, iv. 6) 

 to two forms, one large-leaved and with few chiefly axillary flowers, the other smaller-leaved and with 

 more showy terminal nearly naked spikes. In a similar way Prof. Macoiin (Cat. Canad. PI. ii: 314) 

 distinguishes in S. Brit. Columbia a coarse plant with sharp-lobed leaves from a more slender form 

 with obtuser lobes. In a considerable series of specimens, these and various other variations appear to 

 be indiscriminate. 



