MALVACEAE. 151 



lato-midtUobata supra cano-tomentosa subtus glabella, lobis 3-7-lohdatis 

 confertissimis lobulisque obovatis involutis quasi crispis; floribus soli- 

 tariis petiolo insidentibus sessilibus; ealyce liaud involucellato corollam 

 subcequante; coccis 8 subidato-rostratis hii'to-villosissimis. 



Hab. Alpine region of the Cordilleras of Peru, at Alpamarca, near 

 the snow-line. 



Root perpendicular, fusiform, rather stout, 5 or 6 inches in length ; 

 the crown divided into a number of extremely short leafy caudexes ; 

 the whole plant above-ground forming a depressed and rather close 

 tuft, an inch or two in diameter, and barely an inch high. Ascend- 

 ing stems none. Leaves croivded on the caudexes, but not imbricated, 

 spreading. Petioles about 3 lines long; the lower half or more dilated 

 and squamaceous, being winged by the large adnate stipules : these 

 are rather scarious, nearly glabrous, naked (not ciliate) ; their free 

 portions broadly linear, 3 lines long, about twice the length of the free 

 but flattened summit of the petiole. Lamina of the leaf rotund and 

 slightly reniform, 7-9-nerved from the base, flabellately 7-11-lobed to 

 the middle, thickish in texture, camescent-tomentose above, nearly gla- 

 brous underneath, about 3 lines in length and 4 in width ; the lobes 

 obovate, again lobulate (the lobulets of the lateral segments 2 or 3, 

 or the larger middle ones 5-7), with involute margins, very much 

 crowded, and overlying each other, giving the leaf a remarkably 

 crisped appearance. Flower borne on the petiole about its middle, 

 sessile, small, destitute of an involucel. Calyx campanulate, minutely 

 tomentose, five-cleft to the middle, 3 lines in length ; the lobes trian- 

 gular-ovate, obtuse. Corolla scarcely exceeding the calyx ; the colour 

 unknown. Stamens and styles (8) as in Malvastrum. Capsule about 

 the length of the calyx; the carpels 8, very villous with rather hirsute 

 hairs, thin, semiovate, pointed with a subulate beak, which is consi- 

 derably shorter than the cell, two-valved from the apex. Ovule 

 ascending; the micropyle inferior. Seed reniform. Embryo arcuate: 

 the radicle centripetal-inferior. 



This species and the succeeding ones, as well as M. Pichinchense, 

 and their allies (natives of the Quitensian, Peruvian, and Chilian 

 Andes), all bear the flower on the dilated petiole, between the stipules, 

 in the manner indicated by Cavanilles in his Sida Phyllantlios. They 

 will constitute, therefore, a well-marked section of the genus (the 



