160 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Malvacece. 
SIDA. 
IAnne, Gen . 837. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely dioecious or polygamous. Calyx five-cleft, persistent, without an 
involucre. Petals 5, unguiculate, at the base connate with the staminal tube. Stamens numerous • 
free parts of the filaments terminating the cylinder. Anthers renate, bivalved, one-celled. Ovaries 5 
or more, attached to a columella. Ovules 1 or more in each cell, suspended. Styles 5 or more, con¬ 
nate towards the base, free towards the summit, terminated by a capitellate stigma, seldom along the 
inner side stigmatose. C cur pels 5 or move , connate or secedent, usually bursting towards the summit. 
Seeds with scanty albumen. Cotyledons folded, roundish, flat. Radicle ascending. 
Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, copiously distributed through all tropical and subtropical countries, 
extending, however, in the northern hemisphere to the United States of America and very sparingly 
also to the south of Europe, and in the southern hemisphere to Tasmania and New Zealand Leaves 
varied in form, frequently soft and toothed, seldom narrow. Stipules free and deciduous, rarely 
towards the base adnate to the petiole. Pedicels articulated, variously arranged. Petals more or less 
oblique ; generally obovate or obcordate, prevailingly yellow or red, sometimes white. —Abutilon, 
Gcertn. de Fruct. et Semim. ii. 251, t 135 ; Hoheria, All. Cunn. imAnnal. Nat. Hist. iii. 319 ; Law- 
rencia, Hook Icon. Plant. 261 ; Fleischeria, Steud. inLehm. Plant. Preiss. i. 236 ; Abutilaea, F.M. 
in Linncea , xxv. 379. 
It seems preferable to consociate the above quoted genera all under Sida, than to group their 
respective species under separate generic descriptions. The carpological character's become confluent 
by many intermediate forms; and the nature of the stigmas, which remains the principal point on 
which their distinction could be based, cannot be regarded of higher value in Sida than in Drosera, 
whose differences are in this respect still greater. Limited, as proposed on this occasion, the genus 
Sida will be most readily distinguished from all other Australian genera. 
Sect. I. Notho-Plagianthus. 
Stipules free. Flowers dioecious, rarely polygamous. Petals of male flowers exserted, of female 
almost enclosed. Anthers of the female flower sessile around the top of their staminal tube. Ovules 
solitary in each cell. Styles along the inner side stigmatose. Carpels coherent, finally secedent 
Through Sida pulchella and Plagianthus (or Asterotriehion) sidoides the transit is established 
from Sida to Plagianthus. The latter species exhibits often two, sometimes even three developed 
carpels, attached to a somewhat dilated septum-like columella. Its styles are distinct to near the base 
and similar to those of Sida pulchella. The habit of both plants is similar. Asterotriehion (Klotzsch, 
xcon. Plant. Ear. Hort. Berol. t. S) is identical, as already pointed out by Dr. Jos. Hooker, with 
Blepliaranthemum, the illustration of the latter, referred to by Klotzsch, representing the female plant. 
Sida pulchella, Honpland, Plantes cultivees cl Malmaison, t. 2 5 Hot. Magaz . t. 2753; Loddig. 
Cabinet, 1. 1841 3 S. Tasmanica, J. Hook inJourn. of Hot. ii. 412 3 Abutilon pulchellum, G. Don , Gen. Syst. 
ofHiclilam. Plants, i. 501 j Sweet's Flower Garden, ii. t. 287 3 Plagianthus pulcliellus, Gray, Botany of the 
U. S. Explor. Exped. i. 181; J. Hook FI. Tasm. i. 49. 
1 all-sin ubby or arborescent 3 leaves long-stalked, cordate-ovate, gradually and long contracted to the 
summit, glabious or sparingly hairy or closely tomentellous, unequally crenate, lobeless or some short-lohed; 
stipules subulate-linear, deciduous 3 racemes dioecious, compound or paniculate ; pedicels about as long as the 
