MALVACEiE. 
21 
Abutilon.~\ 
several ovules ; styles as many as carpels ; stigmas capitate. Ripe 
carpels membranous, usually beaked, finally breaking away from the 
axis. Seeds usually 3 in each carpel. — Robust biennials or perennials 
with round-cordate leaves and middle-sized yellow axillary flowers. 
Distrib. Everywhere in warmer regions. Species 70. 
1. A. indicum, G. Don. Gen. Syst. i. 504. A tall erect branching 
biennial, with stems and leaves beneath grey-hoary, not otherwise pilose. 
Leaves long-petioled, thin, round-cordate, cuspidate, 2-4 in. long, irre- 
gularly inciso-repand. Flowers 1 or few, long-peduncled, in the leaf- 
axils. Calyx small, tomentose. Corolla \ in. long. Carpels about 20, 
densely tomentose at first, when old naked dehiscing, with short diverg- 
ing points, 3-4 times the length of the calyx. Sida indica., Linn. 
S. mauritiana, Jacg. Ic. t. 137. Abutilon mauritianum, G. Don. Sida 
populifoiia, Lam. 
Mauritius, Seychelles, and Rodriguez, common in waste ground. Native of old 
world, common in tropical Asia, now spread in both hemispheres. Mauve du pays. 
# Two other common tropical species are now naturalised in Mauritius 
near Port Louis; A. asiaticum, Gr. Don, distinguished by its larger flowers 
(2 inches broad when expanded) and hispid carpels, with erect points 
scarcely exceeding the calyx; and A. graveolens, W.and A., with abunuant 
loose hairs, larger flowers, and awnless pilose carpels, scarcely exceed- 
ing the calyx. The latter has been confounded in Mauritius with Sida 
glutinosa , Cav. It was gathered by Dr. Balfour m Rodriguez at 
Oyster Bay. 
# Mala chr a capitata , Linn, (mistaken by Bojer for Pavonia urens ), a 
native of tropical America, now widely spread in the old world, is es- 
tablished in Mauritius about Port Louis, even in some of the streets. 
It is a strong hispid biennial, with large palmately-lobed leaves, very 
numerous small yellow flowers in dense heads subtended by a general 
involucre, calyx very hispid, five 1-seeded carpels breaking away from the 
axis when mature, capitate stigmas, and a staminal column truncate at 
the tip. Mauve d, fleurs jaunes. 
4. URENA, Linn. 
Epicalyx of 5 large bracteoles. Calyx 5-toothed. Staminal column not 
bearing anthers at its top. Ovary 5-celled ; ovules solitary, ascend- 
ing; styles two to each carpel; stigmas capitate. Ripe carpels dry, in- 
dehiscent, breaking away from the axis, covered on the back with 
firm hooked bristles. — Shrubby herbs, with small pink flowers, fascicled 
in the axils of broad leaves. Distrib. Everywhere in the tropics. 
Species 4-5. 
1. U. iobata, Linn.; DC. Prod. i. 441. A strong much-branched 
erect shrubby herb, with shortly-pilose young branches. Leaves short- 
petioled, 3-4 in. broad and long, firm, pale green and finely pilose 
beneath, inciso-crenate, shallowly palmately 3-5-lobed in the upper 
half. Pedicels very shoft ; bracteoles linear, exceeding the calyx. 
