Sida.] XXVI. malvace^. (Maxwell T. Masters.) 3^5 



4.'^ WISSA.D1TX.A, Medik. 



Undershrubs, more or less beset with soft hairs. Leaves palraately lobed. 

 •Inflorescence lax, panicled. Bracteoles 0. Calyx of 5 sepals whicli are free 

 above tubular below. Petals 5, connate below and adherent to the tube of 

 the stamens. Staminal-tvhe divided at the apex into numerous filaments. 

 Styles as many as the cells of the ovary. Ripe carpels 5, many-seeded, 

 beaked, dehiscent, often with a transverse false partition. Seeds 1-3 in 

 each cell, lower descending, upper ascending.— Disteib. Species 5 or 6 

 tropical American, and one common in all the hotter parts of the globe. 

 In habit they differ from the species of Sida and Abutilou. 



W. EOSTEATA, Planch. in Hook Niger Flora, 229 ; peduncle longer than 

 the petiole, carpels with a false partition. Mast, in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr, 

 i. 182. ,W. periplocif olia, Thwaites Enum. 27. W. zeylanica, Medik. ; Miq. 

 Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt. 2, 147. Abutilon periplocifolium, G. Bon Gen. SysU 

 i. 500 j W. & A. Prodr. i. 55. Sida periplocifolia, L. ; DC. Prodr. i. 467 ; 

 Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 172 ; Wall. Cat. 1861, B, C, D. 



Cultivated in India, naturalized in Ceylon, and very common in the south of the 

 island. — Distkib. Java, Tropical Africa and America. 



Suffrutescent, more or less densely clothed with stellate tomentum. Leaves 3-4 by 

 1^-2 in. and upwards, glabrous above, pubescent beneath, cordate-oblong, entire, 

 tapering into a long point; petiole 1 in. Flowers yellow, in lax panicles. Peduncles . 

 3 in., jointed near the top. Calyx qampanulate, 5-cleft. Petals exceeding the calyx. 

 Bipe carpels awned, much longer than the calyx. — Roxburgh says this is a native of 

 the Malay islands, and yields a beautiful hemp. 



Vae. 1. zeylanica, DO. Prodr. i. 467; leaves narrow, slightly scabrid above. — Pluk. 

 t. 74, f 7 ; BiU. MoH. Mth. i. t. 3, f. 2. 



W. Leschenaultiana, peduncles not exceeding the petiole, carpels with- 

 out false partitions. Sida Leschenaultiana, DC. Prodr. i 468. Abutilun 

 Leschenaultianum, Don Gen. Syst. i. 500. 



Cultivated in India and in Ceylon ; its native countiy not known. 



Suflrutesoent, softly downy. Leaves 2-3 by 2^-3^ in., glabrescent above, softly 

 tomeutose beneath, cordate-ovate, acuminate, quite entire; petiole 3-4 in. Injlores-. 

 cence terminal, panicled, many-flowered. Peduncles 1-2 in. Petals obcordate. Mipe 

 carpels ovoid. — In habit this plant agrees with Wissadula, but it is destitute of the false 

 partitions in the carpel. 



5. ABUTXZ.017, Qsdrtn. 



Herbs or undershrubs more or less covered with down. Leaves angled or 

 palmately-lobed. Inflorescence axillary or terminal. Bracteoles 0. Calyx 

 of 5 valvate sepals, tubular below. Corolla of 5 petals, free above, connate 

 below and adnate to the tube of the stamens. Slaminal-tvhe'&iYidi&dL at the 

 apex into numerous filaments. Carpels 5-<x> . Styles as many as the carpels. 

 Ripe carpels separating from the axis, awned or not, 1- or more-teeded. 

 Heeds reniform, upper ascending, lower descending. — Disteib. About 70 

 species, all tropical or subtropical. As a genus hardly separable from Sida, 

 except in habit and in the larger flowers, which latter (in the Indian species) 

 usually open in the evening, while in the Sidas they expand about noon. 



* Carpels more than 10 (eaxept in A. polyandrum). 



1. A. polyandrum, Schlecht. in Link Enum Hort. Berol. ii. 264 j 

 leaves roundish-cordate with a long acumen, filaments free nearly to the 

 base, staminal-tube with a ring of hairs at the top, carpels 5 awned. Bon 



