malvace^:. 153 



M. Pichinchense. These plants have all the floral characters of Mal- 

 vastrum ; the solitary ovules being ascending ; the embryo arcuate, or 

 in some species rather arcuate-inflexed, almost as in Sida, but the 

 radicle is always centripetal-inferior. The flowers are not involucel- 

 late nor bracteate. 



9. Malvastrum aretioides, Sp. Nov. 



M. nanum, densissime ccespitosum, acaide ; foliis imbricatls parvis; petiolo 

 stipulis fere ad apicem adnatis dlato squamaceo hispido-ciliato ; limho 

 pedato h—1-partito stipulas vix superante, segmentis confertis obo- 

 vatis supra concavis caiio-tomentosis subtus glaberrimis ; floribus soli- 

 tariis basi petiolo adnatis sessilibus ; calyce exinvolucellato hirsuto 

 corolla dimidio breviore; ovario tomentoso 7—S-loculari; coccis 8 subu- 

 lato-rostratis? 



Hab. Alpine region of the Cordilleras of Peru, at Casa Cancha. 



A single small specimen, in flower, is all that I have detected in 

 the collection. It is scarcely above half an inch high, looking as to 

 the vegetation somewhat like Donatia, or the tufts of a dense and 

 dwarf Saxifrage or Aretia, and it evidently grows in the same caespi- 

 tose manner. Leaves densely imbricated on the short caudexes; the 

 dilated and scale-lihe petioles 2 or 3 lines long, winged with the adnate 

 portion of the stipules almost to the summit, and ciliate with strong 

 hispid hairs, which also sparingly beset the lower surface : the free por- 

 tion of the stipules also scarious and hispid-ciliate, almost as long as the 

 blade of the leaf; the naked portion of the petiole very short, some- 

 times almost wanting. Blade of the leaf only a line or a line and a 

 half long, rather coriaceous, glabrous iindemeath, minutely canescent- 

 tomentose above, palmately five-parted, or more commonly pedately-parted 

 into three principal divisions, of which the lateral are three-cleft and 

 the middle one entire ; the lobes obovate, entire, concave (the margins 

 involute), very much crowded. Flower sessile, adnate to the base of 

 the dilated petiole. Involucel none. Calyx hirsute, not involucellate, 

 three lines long, five-cleft to the middle, the lobes oblong-lanceolate. 

 Corolla twice the length of the calyx, "white with a bluish base," if I 

 rightly identify the plant with one mentioned in Dr. Pickering's notes : 



39 



