24 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 



Malvastrum dissectum, n. comb. — Sida dissecta Nutt., Torr. & 

 Gray, FL 1^235; not Malvastrum coccineum Gray, PL Fendl. 

 24 ; Gray, PI, Wright. 1:17; nor M. dissectum Cockerell, 

 Bull. Torr. Bot. Ckib 27:87. — Perennial : many-stemmed from 

 a multicipital caudex, 2 ^^ high or less, densely cinerously 

 stellate-pubescent, the stems whitened with the closely appressed 

 hairs, the calyx obscurely glandular beneath the pubescence : 

 leaves small, 1—3^"^ broad, pedately 3— 5-parted, the divisions 

 incisely lobed, the lobes narrowly oblong to linear : racemes 

 several-flowered, pedicels 2-5"^°^ long; flowers scarlet : the 

 petals obovate, nearly truncate and merely emarginate ; the 

 stigmas capitellate. 



That Nuttall was justified in separating this from M, cocchiciim seems 

 perfectly evident to any one who has seen both species in their native habitat. 

 It is at once distinguished from M, coccineum (Nutt.) Gray by its cinereous 

 white aspect, by its smaller and more narrowly lobed leaves, and narrower 

 petals. There can be no question which species Nuttall meant to designate 

 Sida dissecta, when one reads the notes and descriptions relating to these two 

 species in Fl, N. Am. The Cristaria coccinea Pursh, FL 2:453, Malva 

 coccinea Nutt. Gen. 2 :8i, and Sida coccinea T. & G. Fl. 235, undoubtedly 

 refer to the same plant, viz., the broad-leaved form so common on the great 

 plains between the Rocky mountains and the Missouri river. Sida dissecta 

 of the T. & G. Floraxs clearly the plant still found on the high saline desert 

 table-lands, ''sources of the Platte near the Rocky mountains." Were more 

 evidence needed to show that S. dissecta designates the more western plant, 

 it is found in the fact that the Sida dissecta Hook, and Arn. Bot. Beechy, 

 Suppl. 326, is considered by Torrey and Gray (Fl. N. A. 682) as identical with 

 the Nuttallian plant* 



On the other hand, Dr. Gray did not consider the plants of PI. Fendl. and 

 PI. Wright, as identical. In the former he uses this expression '* * * a 

 few specimens of the var. dissecta, or of forms that evidently connect the Sida 

 dissecta of Nuttall with S, coccinea.'^ In the latter, the language is " * * 



a more canescent variety, * * approaching the var. dissectum^ 



These southern narrow-leaved forms, nicely distinguished 

 from Malvastrum cocciueum by Professor Cockerell, are far 

 enough from the Nuttallian dissectum. They may therefore be 

 designated — 



Malvastrum Cockerelli, n. n. — M. dissectum (Nutt.) Cocker- 



