266 MALVACEAE. 



flowers solitary and slender-peduncled in tlie axils of leaf-like bracts, or sub- 

 panicnlate; calyx 4-5 mm. long, its lobes triangular-ovate, acuminate; petals 

 yellow, reddish blotched at the base, 5-7 mm. long; carpels about 5, stellate- 

 pubemlent, short-tipped, about 8 mm. long. 



Scrub-lands, New Providence and Great Exuma : — Cuba ; Mexico. 



5. AbutUon pauciflorum St. Hil. Fl. Bras. Mer. 1: 206. 1825. 



A densely stellate-tomentose shrub, 6 dm. high, or higher. Leaves orbicu- 

 lar-ovate, 5-7 em. long, obtuse, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, deeply 

 cordate at the base, crenate, the petiole as long as the blade or shorter; 

 peduncles axillary, about as long as the petioles; calyx 10-12 mm. long; its 

 lobes ovate, acute or acuminate; petals somewhat longer than the calyx; carpels 

 8-10, densely villous, 2-cuspidate. 



Waste grounds, Long Island, at Clarence Town : — Florida ; Jamaica ; Cuba ; 

 Mexico to Paraguay. Woolly Abutilox. 



3. GAYOIDES Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 764. 1903. 



A slender perennial finely velvety and often also villous herb, with 

 petioled ovate cordate leaves and solitary axillary filiform-peduncled, whitish 

 flowers. Involucels none. Calyx deeply 5-cleft. Petals 5, distinct. Carpels 

 numerous, 1-celled, membranous and inflated in fruit, the apex rounded; styles 

 slender; stigmas terminal; ovules 2-6 in each carpel. Seeds glabrous. [Simi- 

 lar to the genus Gaya.] A monotypic genus. 



1. Gayoides crispum (L.) Small, Fl. SE. IJ. S. 764. 1903. 



Sida crispa L. Sp. PI. 685. 1753. 

 AbutUon crispum Medic. Malv. 29. 1787. 



Usually much branched, the branches diffuse or ascending, 3-10 dm. long. 

 Leaves thin, broadly ovate, 2-7 cm. long, acute or acuminate at the apex, 

 deeply cordate at the base, crenate or crenulate, the petioles equalling the 

 blades, or shorter, sometimes very short; peduncles as long as the leaves, or 

 shorter, jointed below the flower; calyx velvety and often villous, its lobes ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, acute, 4-6 mm. long; petals pale yellow or whitish, obovate, 

 about twice as long as the calyx; fruiting head of carpels 12-20 mm. thick, the 

 inflated carpels somewhat pubescent. 



Waste and cultivated lands, throughout the archipelago from Abaco and Great 

 Bahama to Caicos, Grand Turk, Ambergris Cay, Inagua and the Anguilla Isles and 

 Water Cav : — Southern United States ; West Indies, east to St. Thomas, south to 

 Grenada ; 'Mexico to tropical America ; Old World tropics. Recorded by Dolley as 

 Ahutilon filiforme Jacq. Low Abutilon. 



4. MALVASTRUM A. Gray, Mem. Am. Acad. II. 4: 21. 1849. 



Herbs, with entire cordate or divided leaves, and solitary or racemose, 

 short-pedicelled perfect flowers. Calyx 5-cleft. Bractlets of the involucels 

 small, 1-3 or none. Cavities of the ovary 5-co, 1-ovuled. Style-branches of 

 the same number, stigmatic " at the summit only, forming capitate stigmas ; 

 carpels indehiscent or imperfectly 2-valved, falling away from the axis at 

 maturity, their apices pointed or beaked. Seed ascending. [Greek, star-mal- 

 low.] About 75 species, natives of America and S. Africa. Type species: 

 Malvastrum coccineum (Pursh) A. Gray. 



Carpels with a short filiform awn; flowers mostly solitary. 1. 21. coromandeliatium. 

 Carpels not awned ; flowers mostly capitate. 2. M. corchorifolium. 



