Malvace(s.\ 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
161 
flowers or frequently shorter; lobes of the calyx semilanceolate-deltoid, nearly as long as the tube; petals 
small, white, ovate-spathulate, outside glabrous; free part of the filaments arising from the summit of an 
almost glabrous tube; styles 5, glabrous, free, upwards inside stigmatose; ovaries usually 5, with single 
ovules; carpels normally 5, longer than the calyx, trigonous-ovate, rather acute, awnless, at the back downy; 
seeds glabrous. 
Not rare along the banks of rivers and rivulets in the southern and middle parts of this colony; 
extending into New South Wales northward, according to All. Cunningham, as far as the Macquarie River; 
also widely distributed over the Tasmanian Isle. 
A tall somewhat graveolent shrub, attaining the height of about 30 feet .and then assuming an arbores¬ 
cent habit. Bark of the branches tough, outside brown, worked up by the aborigines into cordage, that of 
the stems of older trees black-brown and wrinkled. Petioles semicylindrical, often between 1 and 2 inches 
long. Stipules only lj-2 lines long. Fully developed leaves varying usually in length from 2-4 inches, 
always cordate at the base, but variable in width, sometimes coarsely, sometimes but lightly crenated, when 
star-liairy paler beneath. Inflorescence smooth or less commonly velvet-tomentose, mostly axillary and by 
the lapse of leaves often lateral, measuring usually from 1J to several inches in length. Secondary peduncles 
oftener short than long, sometimes quite abbreviated. Pedicels solitary, twin, or a few together, generally 
above the base articulated, supported at the base by a small. lanceolate- or subulate-linear rarely ovate- 
lanceolate caducous bract. Bracteoles linear-subulate, about 1 line long, situated near the basis of the pedicel, 
deciduous. Flowers fragrant. Calyx almost bell-shaped, about 1| line long. Male flowers: Petals spreading, 
oblique rhomboid-ovate, short-unguiculate, very tender, about 2 lines long, with an oblique small excisure at 
the summit, faintly three-nerved, white-bearded at the lower margin and inside towards the base of the lamina, 
also at the inner upper part of the unguis, when fading retained by the long persistent styles. Filaments 
white, numerous. Column of filaments nearly 1J line long, slightly downy towards the base. Free parts of 
filaments at an average 1 line long, usually connate in pairs. Anther yellowish-white, kidney-shaped, 
line long, bursting on a longitudinal suture externally into two valves, showing the mere rudiment of a 
longitudinal septum. Pollen-grains yellow, spherical, ecliinulate-asperous. Ovaries 5, barren, very small, 
connate into a five-furrowed pyramid, slightly downy, under exceptional circumstances fecundated, whereby 
the plant is rendered polygamous. Styles 5, filiform, free, hardly 1 line long, thickened and internally stig¬ 
matose towards the summit. Female flowers: Petals only about 1J line long, seldom excised at the apex, 
often less distinctly bearded, also proportionately narrower. Staminal column almost pyramidal, undivided, 
terminated with many sessile crowded whitish sometimes hispidulous anthers, which are smaller than those 
of the male flowers. Styles 5 rarely 6-7, free, 1J-2 lines long, filiform, upwards exserted, slightly thickened 
and inward stigmatose. Ovaries with exception of the apex glabrous, pyramidally concrete. Fruit consisting 
of 5 rarely 6 or 7 carpels, which are 1J-2J lines long, cohere into a depressed-globular capsule, and secede 
in age from the five-angular at the apex five-toothed column. One or more of the carpels occasionally 
abortive. Yalves almost membranous, tardily opening from the apex along' the inner suture and also towards 
the middle along the outer suture, hardly rough on the commissural faces. Seed suspended from the apex 
of the cell, brown-black, slightly shining and wrinkled, about 1 line long, somewhat gibbose. Albumen 
scanty, mucilaginous-carnose. Cotyledons incumbent, subcordate, foliaceous, unequally towards the summit 
crenulated, plicate and towards the radicle incurved, about 1 line long. Radicle ascendent, cylindrical, of 
the length of the cot} T ledons. 
This plant bears manifold comparison wjth the North American Sida dioica and S. Napsea. Sprengel 
erroneously combined it with the widely different S. ramosa from the Senegal (vid. Syst. Veg. iii. 115). 
Garcke (conf. Bonplandia, 1860, 366) refers Sida pulchella to Hoheria. The bark of aged stems is brown- 
black and wrinkled. The fruit-axis is slender. 
Sida leucopetala from Arnhem’s Land is the only other white-flowering indigenous Australian species, 
with which we are hitherto acquainted. 
X 
