56 MALVACEyE. 



carpels, which at length separate and fall away from the 

 small central axis, fmally bursting on the inner edge or tardi- 

 ly two-valved. Seed reniform, smooth. Embryo arcuate- 

 incurved in soft albumen : cotyledons ovate, foliaceous, 

 somewhat infolded : badicle centripetal-inferior. 



Herb tall and coarse, from a perennial root, with large 

 palmately 7-11-parted alternate leaves; the lobes acumi- 

 nate, pinnatifid-incised and toothed. Stipules ovate, free. 

 Flowers small, umbellate-fascicled at the summit of the 

 flowering branches, together forming an ample corymbose 

 panicle. Petals white. 



Etymology. Named by Clayton from vanrj, a wooded valley or mountain 

 glade, or, poetically, the nymph of the groves, alluding to the situations in 

 which the plant grows. 



Geographical Distribution, &c. Only a single species of the genus 

 is known, which was discovered in the Valley of Virginia, growing in rich 

 calcareous soil, and is also found in similar situations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

 and Illinois. Linnaeus added, as a second species, the N. hermaphrodita or 

 N. laevis, well known in the gardens (a plant of uncertain, though said to be 

 of North American, origin), which, notwithstsnding considerable resemblance 

 in habit, is a genuine Sida (S. Napaea, Cav.), and from which the original 

 Napeea is abundantly distinguished by its inferior radicle, introrsely stigma- 

 tose styles, and dicEcious flowers. 



PLATE 119. Nap^a dioica, Linn.; — branch from a pistillate plant cul- 

 tivated in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge. 



1. Vertical section of a staminate flower, enlarged. (Ohio, Sullivant.) 



2, 3. Magnified stamens from the same. 



4. Vertical section of a pistillate flower, enlarged, showing the sterile 



stamineal column, the styles, ovules, &c. 



5. An ovule detached and more magnified. (Micropyle inferior.) 



6. Fruit of the natural size. (From Ohio, Sullivant.) 



7. The same (with the calyx) enlarged ; one carpel (9.) removed. 



8. A side view of a seed, magnified. 



9. Detached carpel cut across, as w-ell as the contained seed, showing a 



transverse section of the embryo, — magnified as in fig. 7. 



10. Vertical section of the seed (8.) and of the embryo, magnified. 



11. Embryo detached entire, magnified. 



