MALVACE^. 67 



Note. Tlie carpels, when only five in number, are opposite the sepals, 

 at least in the species here figured (Plate 125) ; while in Sida spinosa, and [ 

 believe in other species, they are situated opposite the petals. — When the 

 ovules are only three in number they are either placed one above the other, 

 as in A. Avicennas, or, more commonly, the two upper are collateral, as 

 shown in Plate 125, Fig. 1 and Fig. 5. From this species and its allies, 

 Wissadula, Medik., appears to differ only in having a partition across the 

 cell above the lower seed.* — I do not possess sufiicieut materials for properly 

 characterizing the sections into which the genus Abutilon is to be divided. 

 The type of one of them ( Gayoides), with vesicular muticous fruit, is Sida 

 crispa, Linn., which, having three ovules (and usually two seeds) in each 

 carpel (Plate 126), cannot be a species of Bastardia, to which genus 

 Adrien de Jussieu referred it.f To the same group, on account of its 

 entirely similar aspect and structure, excepting the one-seeded carpels, I 

 should refer the Bastardia nemoralis, Adr. Juss.,| and thus restrict the 

 latter genus to the original species with a suspended seed (the section 

 Abutiloides, Endl.). Abutilon trichopodum, Ach. Rich.,§ which is also a 

 native of Key West, is very closely allied to A. crispum, but appears to be 

 distinct. 



PLATE 125. Abutilon velutinum, n. sp. ; — a branch of the natural 

 size, in flower and ripe fruit ; from Texan specimens, wild and 

 cultivated. 



1. Transverse section of a flower-bud (to show the aestivation), and of the 



ovary, magnified. The section passes through the upper part of 

 the ovary, so as to exhibit the pair of collateral ovules which 

 occupy the upper portion of each cell. 



2. Magnified vertical section of a flower, showing the ovules in their nat- 



ural position. (One of each upper pair is concealed by its fellow.) 



3. A detached ovule more highly magnified. 



4. Enlarged vertical section through the dehiscent fruit and the investing 



calyx, dividing one of the five carpels so as to exhibit two of the 

 seeds in place. 



5. Vertical section through the back of one of the carpels and the three 



seeds it contains, to show their position, viz. two of them collateral 

 in the upper and broader part of the cell. 



* I have seen no representative of this genus. I have, indeed, a flowering 

 specimen of Sida periplocifolia, [i. Cariba-a, DC-, from Key West, which Acli. 

 Richard (who does not describe the iiilernul structure of tlie fruit), in the Hot- 

 any of La Sagra's work on Cuba, liolds, I suppose incorrectly, to be identical 

 with the Oriental S. periplocifolia, Linn.; but the ovary exhibits no trace of 

 transverse partitions ; so that the Caribbean species is a true Abutilon 



t In St. Hilaire, FL Bras. Merid. 1. j>. 104. 



t Op. cit. p. lOf), t. 39. 



§ In La Sagra, Hist. Cith., part. Hot. PL Vase. p. 155. t. 17. 



