MALLOW. 83 
Plagianthus received its name from the obliquity of its pe- 
tals. 
The Sidas are children of warmer latitudes ; hence they are 
foreign to Britain, and so also they do neither reach the southern 
portions of our colony, although a few are dispersed towards the 
Murray-River. From Sida again is divided a subgenus, Abutilon, 
sunply because the fruitlets of a legitimate Sida contain only one 
ovule each, while more than one, even many, are characteristic for 
Abutilon. The 
name of the latter Fie, XX XVII. 
is of Arabic origin, 
alluding to the 
few species with 
yellow flowers 
growing at and 
near the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, one 
of which, Linné’s 
Sida Abutilon, ; 
being precisely ° 
the same as an 
annual plant 
not uncommon 
around the 
Murray - lagoons, 
springing chiefly 
up in the summer 
when the water 
recedes. The name 
Sida occurred al- 
already in ancient 
Greek, but was 
there applied to 
the white Water- 
lily of Europe. 
a stinstnt Fie. XXXVIJI.—(Lasiopetalum Behrii).—1, flower 
ustTale cen from above ; 2, fruit surrounded by the calyx and 
the Malvaceze by opened into its valves. 
ES 
