MALVACEAE. 



233 



1. Abutilon AbutUon (L.) 

 Rusby. Velvet Leaf. Indian 

 Mallow. (Fig. 256.) Annual, 

 stout, 3°-7° high, densely velvety- 

 pubescent. Leaves long-petioled, 

 cordate, ovate-orbicular, 4'-12' 

 wide, dentate, or nearly entire, 

 acuminate, the point blunt; flow- 

 ers yellow, about 10" broad; pe- 

 duncles shorter than the petioles; 

 head of fruit 10'' in diameter or 

 more; carpels 12-15, pubescent, 

 dehiscent at the apex, each valve 

 beaked by a slender awn. [Sida 

 AbutUon L. ; AbutUon Avicennae 

 Gaertn.] 



Cultivated ground. Abundant 

 near Spanish Point in 1909 and 

 1913, occasional elsewhiere. Natur- 

 alized. Native of southern Asia. 

 ^yidely naturalized as a weed in the 

 United States. Flowers in summer 

 and autumn. 



Abutilon striatum Dicks., Garden Abutilon, Brazilian, is a tall slender 

 nearly glabrous shrvib with slender-petioled, nearly orbicular, sharply 3-5-lobed, 

 dentate, cordate leaves 3-5' broad, and drooping long-peduncled red orange 

 red-veined flowers about IV long. Lefroy records it as common in gardens at 

 his time, but it is not much grown now. Several different races and hybrids- 

 are in cultivation. 



2. MODIOLA Moench. 



Prostrate or ascending herbs, with palmately cleft or divided loaves, and 

 small axillary peduncled red flowers. Bracts of the involucre 3, distinct. 

 Calyx 5-cleft. Cavities of the ovary oo, 2-3-ovuled. Style-branches stigmatic 

 at the summit ; carpels 5-20, septate between the seeds, dehiscent into 2 valves 

 with awn-pointed tips, and aristate on the back. [Latin, from the likeness of 

 the fruit to the small Roman measure, modiolus.] A monotypic American 

 genus. 



