340 STERCULIACE^. Hermannia. 



H. pauciflora, Watson. Lower, diffuse, cinereous-tomentulose or partly glabrate : leaves 

 smaller, deltoid- or oblong-ovate, serrulate: peduncles 1 -flowered : petals 2 or 3 lines long, 

 yellow : anther cells blunt : capsule oval and deeper-lobed, glabrate, more vescicular, 

 minutely toothed along the edges of the valves, — Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 368. — Mountains 

 near Tucson, S. Arizona, Pringle, Lemmon. (Mex., Palmer.) 



2. MELOCHIA, Dill. (From meluchlye or meliichla, the Arabic name of 

 the oriental pot-herb Corchorus olitorius, L., but borrowed by the Arabs, through 

 the Syriac, from the Greek fjiakdxr) or /i.oAo'x>7, the mallow.) — Elth. 221, t. 176 ; 

 L. Gen. no. 553 ; Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 93 ; Schumann in Mart. Fl. Bras. xiii. 

 pt. 3, 27. — Tropical genus, barely on southern borders : flowers heterogone- 

 dimorphous, small. 



§ 1. EuMELOCHiA, Griseb. 1. c. Capsule pyramidal, simply loculicidal through 



the salient or wing-like angles : no involucellate bractlets : calyx not enlarging : 



leaves mainly with prominent and straight pinnate veins. — Melochia, DC. Prodr. 



i. 490 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 85, t. 134. (Sectional name not well chosen, for 



type of genus is of next section.) 



M. pyramidata, L. Barely suffrutescent or even annual, glabrous : branches slender : 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate or lower oblong-ovate, serrate, thin : peduncles terminal or opposite 

 the leaves, loosely 1-few-flowered : calyx-lobes lanceolate, subulate-acuminate, shorter than 

 the rose- or violet-red corolla : filaments monadelphous only at base : capsule almost vesicu- 

 lar, the wing-like angles with a salient point at base. — Spec. ii. 674; Cav. Diss. t. 172, f. 1 ; 

 Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 86, t. 134, & PI. Lindh. pt. 2, 165. Sida Sabeana, Buckley, Proc. Acad. 

 Philad. 1861, 449. —Texas, in rocky soil (All trop. Am.) 



M. tomentosa, L. Shrubby, finely tomentose-canescent : leaves rather firm, strongly 

 plicate-veined, ovate to oblong, crenate or serrate : flowers more numerous and clustered : 

 stamens monadelphous higher up : cap.sule tomentulose, with salient angles rounded or 

 obtusely pointed at base. — Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1140 (Sloane, Hist. t. 139) ; Cav. Diss. t. 172, 

 f . 2 ; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 40. M. crenata, Vahl, Symb. iii. t. 68. — Near the lower Kio 

 Grande, Berlandier, Schott. (Trop. Am.) 



§ 2. Ri:fiDLEA, Griseb. 1. c. Capsule globular and obscurely or moderately 

 5-lobed, loculicidal and at length also mostly septicidal into half valves : involucel 

 of 3 or more slender bractlets usually surpassing the unchanged calyx : venation 

 commonly of the preceding. — Riedlea, Vent. Choix Cels, t. 37. Riedleia, DC. 

 Prodr. i. 490, excl. spec. Melochia, Dill. Elth. 221, t. 176. 



M. hirsuta, Cav. Suffruticose or herbaceous, 2 to 4 feet high, in the type silky-villous 

 rather than hirsute : leaves short-petioled, from ovate-lanceolate or ovate-subcordate to 

 oblong, serrate, often doubly serrate : flowers in small capitate clusters in axils of upper 

 leaves (mostly reduced to bracts), therefore interruptedly terminal-spicate : calyx short- 

 campanulate and with short ovate subulate-pointed lobes: corolla (anthesis matutinal) 

 purple or violet : stamens in short-styled flowers distinct to below the middle, in the capillary 

 long-styled monadelphous throughout : capsule hirsute. — Diss. vi. 323, t. 175, f. 1 ; Triana & 

 Planch. Fl. Nov. Gran. 213 ; Schumann, 1. c. 45. if. serrata, St. Hil. & Naud. Ann. Sci. Nat. 

 aer. 2, xviii. 36. M. serrata, & M. hirsuta, Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 93, 94, the two heterogone 

 forms! Riedlea serrata. Vent. Choix Cels, 37, t. 37. R. elongata, Presl, Rel. Haenk. ii. 148, 

 but not "California ad Monterey." Mougeotia hirsuta, HBK. Nov. Gen. & Spec. v. 331. 

 (Trop. Am ) 



Var. glabrescens, Gray. Thin-leaved and thinly pubescent. — Gray in Patterson, 

 Check-list, 1892, p. 17, name only. MelocJiia serrata, Chapm. Fl. ed. 2, 610. M. hirsuta, var. 

 Regnellii, Schumann, 1. c. t. 10, nearly. Riedlea serrata, var. glabrescens, Presl, 1. c. 147, by 

 character. — Low pine barrens, S. Florida, Garber, Curtiss, &c. 



