314 MALVACE^. Sphceralcea. 



Coulter, then by Schott, Lemmon, &c. ; common at Maricopa, Gray &, Farloir.^ Oue of the 

 transitions to Malvastnim. 



^- -I- Perennial (?) with carpels almost as in Malvustrum, reniform, uniovulate, deeply 

 reticulate upon the sides ; the upper sterile portion relatively minute and inconspicuous, 

 incurved, muticous. 

 S*(?) Orciittii, Rose. Finely tomentose and canescent throughout, 2 to 3 feet high, 

 branched above': leaves petiolate, ovate-oblong, slightly 3-lobed ; lobes broad and rounded, 

 barely crenulate or entire, the middle one much the longest, the basal sometimes obscure : 

 flowe'rs small, closelv grouped in and shortly racemose from the upper axils, becoming at 

 the summits of the brandies interruptedly subspicate : calyx about 21 to 3 lines in length : 

 corolla 4 lines long, vermilion, drying purplish: carpels in a depressed-globose stellate- 

 pubescent head, not much over a line in length. — Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. i. 289.— Near 

 Canso Creek in the Colorado Desert, California, Orctttt. An anomalous species, which, 

 except for its obvious affinities to several Sphceralcece, could with equal propriety be referred 

 to Malvustrum. 



^ ^ J^^ Perennials, mostly with lignescent roots : upper and mostly empty thin and 

 smooth half of mature carpel moderately incurved or erect : species of difficult discrimi- 

 nation, at least without mature fruit. 

 ++ Leaves all or mainly palmately or pedately parted : mature carpels very blunt, rarely 

 witli an obscure mucro', occasionally 2-seeded : petals brick-red or orange-scarlet. 

 S. pedatifida, Gray. Cinereous-puberulent or stellular-hirsutulous, a foot or two high: 

 "stems slender,' often loosely branched: leaves with linear or when wider with pinnately 

 lobed divisions : petals quarter to half inch long : mature carpels strongly rugose or even 

 tuberculate on the back, barelv 2 lines long. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 291. Malvastrum 

 pedalijidum, Grav, PI. Lindh. 'pt- 2, 160, PI. Wright, i. 17, & ii. 20. Sidakea atacosa, 

 Buckley, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1861, 449. — On the Rio Grande from El Paso downward, and 

 at San Antonio, S. Texas ; first coll. by Wright. (Adj. Mex.) 

 S. pedata, Torr. Silvery-canescent with very short and soft stellular pubescence, a span 

 to 2 feet high, rather stout : leaves with cuneate and incisely lobed divisions (sometimes nar- 

 rower) : petals half inch to almost inch long : mature carpels nearly of the preceding but 

 obscurely rugose or reticulated on the back. — Torr. in Gray, PI Fendl. 23, & PI. Wright, i. 

 17 (name only); Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 291. Sida grossularnefolia, Hook. & Am. 

 Bot. Beech. 326 ; therefore Malvastrum grossularuefolium, Gray, PI. Fendl. 21. M. cocciveum, 

 Grav, 1. c, partly (no. 81), & PI. Wright, i. 16. ? M. coccineum. var. grossulario'fotium,^ and 

 some'of SphmraJcea Emori/i, Wats. Bot. King Exp. 47, 48. — W. borders of Texas and New 

 Mexico to S. Arizona and N. W. Nevada ; first coll. by Fremont. Smaller forms much 

 resembling Malvastrum coccineum, except in the fruit. Malva Creeana, Graham, Bot. M.ng. 

 t. 3698, if N. American, probably came from this, perhaps through hybridization with some- 

 thing else. Passes into 



Var. angustiloba, Gray, with divisions of the leaves linear or narrowly oblanceolate 

 and entire. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 292. Malvastrum coccineum, var. 1 Gray, PI. Wright. 

 i. 17. — W. Texas to Arizona, Wright, Schott, &c. 



++ ++ Leaves undivided, at most obtusely S-.'S-lobed, roundish, mostly cordate. 



= Canescent, even on the calyx, with short and close stellular pubescence, not lanate- 



tomentose : carpels wholly muticous, subcoriaceous on the back to the rounded summit, 



within fully half smooth and thin. 



S. Munroana, Spach. Leafy to the top, a foot or two high, minutely canescent : leaves 



crenately toothed or sometimes incised : inflorescence mo.stly thyrsoid-glomerate : petals red 



(usually scarlet, but sometimes rose-red), only half inch long: calyx 2 or 3 lines long, not 



surpassing the depressed fruit: mature carpels only a line or two long, oval-reniform. — 



1 Also W. Max., Palmer, Hartman. 



2 Some of Dr. Watson's specimens from the Himiboldt Mts., Nevada (no. 106, in part), have much 

 larger flowers (calyx-lobes 5 lines in lenRtli), and arc prol)ably distinct, yet in default of fruit even 

 their generic affinities are somewhat doubtful. 



