172 

 A NEW CUBAN SI DA 



By Brother Leon 



Sida Brittoni Fr. Leon, sp. nov. 



Perennial; stems hirsute-strigose, diffusely branched at the 

 base, prostrate, 3 to 4 dm. long, the branches ascending or pros- 

 trate; leaves oblong to elliptic or obovate, rounded at apex, 

 serrate above the middle, i to 2 cm. long, 4 to 9 mm. wide, 

 subcordate at base, long-ciliate, hirsute on both surfaces, with 

 long scattered stellate hairs beneath; petioles 4 to 7 mm. long; 

 stipules linear or somewhat spatulate, long-ciliate, little longer 

 than the petioles; flowers clustered at the end of the branches; 

 pedicels shorter than the subtending petioles; calyx 5-lobed, 

 5 mm. long, its lobes ovate, acute, long-ciliate, slightly longer 

 than the tube, densely hirsute within; petals yellow, about 13 

 mm. long, puberulent; style-branches 5, red, slender, 4 mm. 

 long; carpels 5, 2.7 mm. long, puberulent, sharply reticulate- 

 wrinkled, 2-pointed at apex, i-seeded, partially 2-valved; seed 

 3-angled, 2 mm. long, brown, filling the cavity. 



Dry savanna, Chirigota, Pinar del Rio, Leon & Roca 'J466. 



This species was collected by the writer in company with 

 Father Modesto Roca Masden, on x'\ugust 9, 191 7, in the savanna 

 of Chirigota, near Santa Cruz de los Pinos, Pinar del Rio pro- 

 vince.* This locality is well known to the botanists who have 

 studied the flora of Cuba, a number of rare plants having been 

 collected there by Charles Wright, who, for several years, had 

 his quarters not very far away, at Retiro, at the foot of the 

 western mountain range. 



North of the road which connects Havana with Pinar del 

 Rio, lies the higher and drier portion of the Chirigota savanna. 

 In its gravelly soil more or less mixed with grains of limonite, 

 is growing a palm (Sabal sp.) closely related to the palmetto of 

 the southeastern States, and, among lower plants, Sporoholus 

 indicus is predominant in many places. In that environment, 



* The following specimens from other localities arc in the herbarium of The 

 New York Botanical Garden: pine-woods, Herradura (Earle 748); royal palm 

 savanna, Herradura (Brillon, Earle &» Gager 6342); coastal plain near Coloma 

 (Brilton &» Gager 6oq6). The plant is also in the herbarium of Columbia I'nivcr- 

 sity, as found by Charles Wright (2046), presumably in Pinar del Rio, and this 

 was the collection recorded by Grisebach as Sida ciliaris L. — F. W. Pennell. 



