340 STERCULIACE.E. Hi 



ermannia. 



H. pauciflora, Watson. Lower, diffuse, cinereous-tomentulose or partly glabrate : leaves 

 smaller, deltoid- or olilongovate, serrulate: peduucles 1 -flowered : petals 2 or 3 lines long, 

 yellow: antlier cells blunt: capsule oval and deeper-lobed, glabrate, more vescicular, 

 minutely toothed along the edges of the valves. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 368. — Mountains 

 near Tucson, S. Arizona, Pringle, Lemmon. (Mex., Palmer.) . * 



2. MELOCHIA, Dill. (From meluchlye or meluchta, the Arabic name of 

 the orit'utal pot-herb Corchorus olitorius, L., but borrowed by the Arabs, through 

 the Syriac, from the Greek fiakdxr] or fioXoxr), the mallow.) — Elth. 221, t. 17(5 ; 

 L. Gen. no. 553 ; Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 93 ; Schumann in Mart. Fl. Bras. xiii. 

 pt. 3, 27. — Tropical genus, barely on southern borders : flowers heterogone- 

 dimorphous, small. 



§ 1. EuMELOCHiA, Griseb. 1. c. Capsule pyramidal, simply loculicidal through 

 the salient or wing-like angles : no involucellate bractlets : calyx not enlarging : 

 leaves mainly with prominent and straight pinnate veins. — Melochia, DC. Prodr. 

 i. 490; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 85, t. 134. (Sectional name not well chosen, for 

 type of genus is of next section.) 



M. pyramidata, L. Barely suffrutescent or even annual, glabrous : branches slender : 

 leaves olilong-lanceolate or lower obloug-ov.ate, serrate, thin : peduncles terminal or opposite 

 the leaves, loosely I -few-flowered : calyx-lobes lanceolate, subulate-acuminate, shorter than 

 the rose- or violet-red corolla : filaments monadelphous only at base : capsule almost vesicu- 

 lar, the wing-like angles with a salient point at base. — Spec. ii. 674 ; Cav. Diss. t. 172, f. 1 ; 

 Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 86, t. 134, & PI. Lindh. pt. 2, 165. Sida Sabeuna, Buckley, Proc. Acad. 

 Phil'ad. 1861 , 449. — Texas, in rocky soiL (All trop. Am.) 



M. tomentosa, L. Shrubby, finely tomentose-canesceut : leaves rather firm, strongly 

 plicate-veined, ovate to oblong, crenate or serrate : flowers more numerous and clustered : 

 stamens monadelphous higher up: capsule tomentulose, with salient angles rounded or 

 obtusely pointed at base. — Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1140 (Sloane. Hist. t. 139) ; Cav. Diss. t. 172, 

 f. 2 ; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 40. M. crenata, Vahl, Symb. iii. t. 68. — Near the lower Rio 

 Grande, Berlandier, Schott. (Trop. Am.) 



§ 2. RiEDLEA, Griseb. 1. c. Capsule globular and obscurely or moderately 

 5-lobed, loculicidal and at length also mostly septicidal into half valves : involucel 

 of 3 or more slender bractlets usually surpassing the unchanged calyx : venation 

 commonly of the preceding. — Riedlea, Vent. Choix Cels, t. 37. Riedleia, DC. 

 Prodr. i. 490, excl. spec. Melochia, Dill. Elth. 221, t. 176. 



M. hirsuta, Cav. Suffmticose or herbaceous, 2 to 4 feet high, in the type silky-villous 

 rather than hirsute : leaves short-petioled, from ovate-lanceolate or ovate-subcordate to 

 oblong, serrate, often doubly serrate : flowers in small capitate clusters in axils of upper 

 leaves (mostly reduced to bracts), therefore interruptedly terminal-spicate : calyx short- 

 campanulate and with short ovate subulate-pointed lobes: corolla (anthesis matutinal) 

 purple or violet : stamens in short-styled flowers distinct to below the middle, in the cajiillarv 

 long-styled monadelphous throughout : capsule hirsute. — Diss. vi.'323, t. 17.5, f. 1 ; Tiiana & 

 Planch. Fl. Nov. Gran. 213 ; Schumann, 1. c. 4.5. M. serrata, St. Hil. & Naud. Ann. Sci. Nat. 

 ser. 2, xviii. 36. Af. serrata, & M. hirmta, Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 93, 94, the two heterogone 

 forms ! Riedlea serrata. Vent. Choix Cels, 37, t. 37. R. elonfjnta, Presl, Kel. Ilaenk. ii. 148, 

 but not "California ad Monterey." Mougeotia hirsuta, HBK. Nov. Gen. & Spec. v. 331. 

 (Trop. Am ) 



Var. glabrescens, Gray. Thin-leaved and thinly pube.^cent. — Gray in Patterson, 

 Check-list, 1892, p. 1 7, name only. J^frhchia serrata, Chapm. Fl. ed. 2, 610. .1/. hirsuta, var. 

 Regnellii, Schumann, 1. c. t. 10, nearly. Riedlea serrata, var. glabrescens, Presl, 1. c. 147, by 

 character. — Low pine barrens, S. Florida, Garter, Citrtiss, &c. 



