Cienfuegosia Drummondii, a rare Texas plant 
FREDERICK L. LEWTON 
Several years ago, while collecting in western Texas, the writer’s 
attention was attracted by a note in Coulter’s Botany of Western 
Texas in reference to a malvaceous plant, Fugosia Drummondii 
Gray. ‘‘Found in Gonzales County many years ago by Drum- 
mond, but, so far as known, not since found.”’ 
Being engaged in field experiments with cotton for the United 
States Department of Agriculture, the ragity of this close relative 
of the cotton plant aroused a desire to discover it again, and during 
the past four years the plant has been kept in mind and sought 
for pretty generally throughout southwestern Texas. 
Consultation of the United States National Herbarium re- 
vealed the fact that the single North American specimen of this 
plant there preserved was obtained by that indefatigable collector 
of western plants, A. A. Heller, at Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1894. 
Of this find he says: 
‘Tn rich black land on the edge of a water hole near the Arroyo, 
Corpus Christi, altitude 40 feet. Very few plants were seen, 
and only one in flower, but the others in good fruit. Flowers 
almost two inches in diameter, greenish yellow. Apparently a 
very rare plant.’’* 
With this clue the writer carefully investigated the locality 
mentioned in July, 1909, but found no traces of the plant. 
A species of Sida having leaves closely resembling those of the 
plant sought was eagerly gathered many times in the belief that 
the quest was ended, but a closer examination showed that it 
belonged to the opposite end of the mallow family from that of 
Fugosia. 
On June 15, 1910, the four-year search was rewarded by finding 
several plants of this rare species in flourishing condition in a 
*Contr. Herb. Franklin & Marshall College, no. 1:67. 1895. 
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