64 MALVACEAE. 



1. LAVATERA, Tourn. Stout shrubs with coarse flexible branches, 

 ample palmately lobed leaves, and axillary showy flowers. Involucel 3- 

 lobed. Stamineal tube divided at summit into numerous filaments. 

 Style-branches stigmatose lengthwise, on the inside. Fruit a depressed 

 whorl of 5 — 8 crowded achenes surrounding the angular column of the 

 receptacle which scarcely exceeds them, and covered by the calyx. 



1. L. assurgentiflora, Kell. Coarse, stout, soft-woody, flexuous- 

 branched, 6 — 15 ft. high, the young branches, pedicels and calyx, rarely 

 the leaves also, stellate-hairy or -tomentose: leaves long-petioled, 3 — 6 

 in. broad, angularly 5 — 7-lobed, the lobes coarsely toothed: fl. solitary, 

 on a long deflexed and curved pedicel: petals 1 — 1% in. long, cuneate- 

 obovate, truncate or retuse, abruptly reflexed from near the base, 

 rose-red, with crimson veins: stamineal column glabrous: styles exserted: 

 fr. % i n - broad; carpels not beaked, equalling the summit of the axis. — 

 Native of the islands off Santa Barbara and San Pedro; long cultivated 

 about San Francisco, where it is become spontaneous. 



2. MALVA, Pliny (Mallow). Herbs with broad angular or rounded 

 leaves, and axillary solitary or glomerate flowers. Involucel 3-leaved. 

 Stamens and pistils as in Lavatera. Column of receptacle short, seeming 

 depressed below the whorl of achenes. 



1. M. pabviflora, L. Simple or branching, the branches depressed 

 and a few inches long, or the main stem erect and 2 — 6 ft. high: 

 herbage more or less pilose-hairy: leaves long-petioled, obsoletely5 — 7- 

 lobed, round-cordate, crenate, 1 — 3 in. broad: fl. glomerate, small, the 

 pale blue corolla little exceeding the calyx: bractlets linear; calyx 

 accrescent, the broad-lobed limb rolately spreading away from the mature 

 fruit: achenes glabrous or pubescent, transversely and sharply rugose on 

 the bach, the acute winged margins distinctly toothed. — A homely weed, 

 extremely common, often small and depressed when growing in the 

 streets or along country waysides, but in good soil erect and tall. 



2. M. BOREAiiis, Wallm. Habit, aspect and foliage of the last, but 

 herbage more conspicuously pilose and often a little stellate-hairy: 

 bractlets lanceolate: calyx-lobes deep, closed over the mature fruit: cor- 

 olla pale blue, J£ in. long, surpassing the calyx: achenes reticulate-rugose, 

 the acute margins entire. — Bather common about Berkeley; easily distin- 

 guished from the foregoing by the iarger flowers, connivent calyx-lobes, 

 entire- margined and irregularly rugose achenes. 



3. SIDALCEA, A. Gray. Herbs with rounded and commonly lobed 

 or parted leaves; occasionally dioecious. Flowers in terminal racemes 

 or spikes, rose-purple or white. Involucel 0. Stamineal column double; 

 filaments of the outer series united into about 5 sets; of the inner 

 distinct. Style-branches stigmatio lengthwise as in Malva; fruit the 

 same, except that the achene is beaked. 



