258 MALVACEAE. 



or rose color, obcordate or emarginate. Style-branches 10 or more, subulate. 

 Fruit a depressed whorl of carpels, separating from the central axis when ripe 

 as L-seeded achene-like nutlets, which are round-reniform and completely filled 

 by the seed. (Greek malache, soft, on account of the emollient properties. 

 Ours naturalized Old World weeds of waste places.) 



i much surpassing the calyx. 



Carpels not reticulate, puberulent on back 1. M. rotundifolia. 



Carpels glabrate at maturity, rugose-reticulate on back, the margin entire or obscurely 



denticulate; calyx-lobes mostly closed over the mature fruit 2. .1/. boreaiis. 



Petals slightly longer than the calyx; carpels rugose-reticulate on back, the margin winged 

 and denticulate; calyxdobes spreading or erect 3. M. parviftora. 



1. M. rotundifolia L. Dwarf Mallow. Sparsely hispidulous or hirsute; 

 stems slender, procumbent, 1 to 2 ft. long, from a large deep root; leaves 

 rounded, crenate, slightly or scarcely at all 5 to 7-lobed; corolla surpassing the 

 calyx, pale blue; carpels 14 or 15, puberulent, not reticulated on the back or at 

 least not obviously so. 



Waysides and old gardens at Berkeley. Summer and autumn. 



2. M. boreaiis Wallm. Bull Mallow. Habit and foliage like the pre- 

 ceding, but herbage often more hairy; pedicels tending to be reflexed in fruit; 

 bractlets ovate or lanceolate ; calyx-lobes mostly closed over the mature fruit ; 

 corolla pinkish, 5 to 6 lines long, surpassing the calyx; carpels dorsally rugose- 

 reticulate or even somewhat favose, the margin entire or obscurely denticulate. 



Common at Berkeley and other Bay towns, flowering during the summer 

 into early wdnter. 



3. M. parviflora L. Cheese-weed. Widely branching, iy 2 to 3 ft. high; 

 petioles and ascending branches stellate-hairy on the upper side, glabrous 

 below; leaves roundish in outline, with a red spot at base of blade, shallowlv 

 7-lobed, 5 in. broad or less, on petioles twice as long as the blade ; flowers in 

 rather close axillary clusters; bractlets linear; corolla pinkish with notched 

 petals, 2y 2 lines long, slightly longer than the calyx; calyx commonly spreading 

 under or about the mature fruit; carpels about 11, sharply rugose-reticulate 

 and pubescent on the back, the margin winged and denticulate. 



Very common in waste places, especially near dwellings in the interior val- 

 leys; flowering in spring and early summer. All of our species are called 

 ''Cheeses" by children on account of the peculiar fruit. Useful as a dry 

 fodder when dead ripe. 



3. SIDALCEA Gray. 



Herbs. Leaves rounded and either crenate, crenately incised, parted or 

 divided, or palmately lobed. Flowers in terminal spikes or racemes, either 

 perfect, gynodioecious (i. e., with perfect and pistillate flowers en separate 

 plants, the pistillate flowers being smaller and with sterile stamens) or 

 dioecious. Corolla purple, rose-pink or white. Bractlets in ours none, rarely 1. 

 Petals emarginate or truncate. Stamen-tube with double series of terminal 

 free filaments, the filaments of the outer series often distinctly below the 

 filaments of the inner series; filaments more or less united into sets. Fruit 



consisting of 5 to 9 carpels, commonly beaked. (Sida, a genus of this family, 

 and Aikea, ancienl name foi a mallow, alluding to the appearance and rela- 

 tionship ,,(' these plants.) 



Leave* round in outline, at least some (usually the upper) pedately parted or divided; 

 flowers in ours rose-pink or purple. Eusidalcea. 



Petals truncate or merely retUSe; annuals except no. 4. 



Carpels rugose-reticulate on hack and 



Beakleat; pubescence both stellate and hispid-pilose, especially on calyx; bracts 



