168 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
\Malvacece. 
# 
Lower Genoa River; F. M. Beyond Victoria in the valley of the River Grose ; Miss Atkinson. Along the 
Wonboyn River and near Twofold Bay; F. M. In the Tattiara country; Rev. Jul. Edm. Woods. 
An erect flexible shrub, attaining under favorable circumstances tbe height of fully 20 feet, when dwarf 
resembling* Solanum stelligerum. Branches and branclilets dissite; the latter as well as the leafstalks clothed 
with a grey-brown finally nigrescent foment. Petioles from J to 1 inch long ; the superior ones the shortest. 
Leaves alternate, herbaceous, usually somewhat acute, l.J-4 inches long, ^-3 inches broad, above dark-green, 
wrinkled by netted veins, slightly scabrous from star-hair and finally glabrescent, beneath fulvous-cinereous, 
closely yet thinly tomentose ; the stout midnerve and spreading lateral nerves beneath prominent. Stipules 
cynibiform, membranous, shorter than 1 line, glabrous or at the outer side hairy, apparently often not developed. 
Pedicels persistent, f-2 inches long, filiform, upwards thicker, tomentose, not distinctly articulated; some¬ 
times 2-3 consociated and terminal on a short peduncular branchlet. Calyx cleft to or beyond the middle, 
outside tomentose, inside clothed with scanty' or copious silk-hair, also more or less tinged with blue inside; 
its lobes semilanceolate-deltoid, 1§-2| lines long, one-nerved. Petals broad- or rliomboid-ovate, comparatively 
short-ungniculate, \ to nearly 1 inch long, dark-red towards the base, faintly repand, outwards half tomen- 
tellous, above the glabrous white claw bearded-ciliate, along the outer margin thinly ciliated, inside glabrous. 
Staminal column glabrous, rising only to the length of about 2 lines over the basal tube of the corolla. Free 
portions of filaments 1 line or less long, densely aggregated from the middle to the summit of the cylinder, 
capillary. Anthers yellowish, A-J line long, with a very' narrow longitudinal septal ridge. PolJen-grains 
globose, eckinnlate-asperous. Style filiform, glabrous, excelling the length of the stamen, abont half as long 
as the corolla, whitish. Stigmas short, conglutinated. Capsule measuring 3-4 lines in diameter, depressed- 
globose, liardly acuminate, slightly waved by sutural and dorsal contractions of the valves, outside with 
exception of the base densely clothed with soft simple fulvous hair, producing at the upper part of the cavities 
long white soft hair, which finally separate and form a small tuft of wool overlying* the vertex of the seeds. 
Central axis, if not seceding with the valves, split into 3 rarely 4 setaceous segments. Endocarp imperfectly 
separating. Eunicles extremely short. Seeds at least 1 line long*, black, obovate, indistinctly' or bluntly 
trigonous, very minutely vemiculose. Albumen white, fleshy' mucilaginous. Embryo yellow. Cotyledons 
always dissected into three curved infracted or spiral lobes ; the middle segment narrow-oblong, §—1 line long* 
and line broad; the two lateral lobes falcate- or linear-oblong*, about half as long as the middle one. 
Radicle curved-cylindrical. 
Plate IV. 1, vertical section of flower; 2, petals; 3, anthers unexpanded; 4, anthers expanded; 5, 
pollen-grains; 6, style; 7 and 8, capsule; 9, capsule laid open ; 10, seeds with the hair-tufts; 11 and 12, 
dissections of seeds: figs. 1, 2 and 6, natural size; 3-5 and 7-12, magnified. 
Malva rotundifolia L., the British dwarf mallow, common in many places of this countiy, has been 
omitted in this enumeration of A ictorian Malvaceae, since it is, as well as Malva verticillata and M. silvestris, 
unquestionably not indigenous, although now quite naturalized. 
In concluding these observations on Victorian Malvaceae attention may he drawn to the circumstance, 
as affecting the limitation of the order, that Pavonia hastata, naturalized in the eastern warmer parts of Australia, 
produces here only exceptionally' normal flowers. We find the caly'x almost constantly remaining closed until 
the carpels ripen. The corolla is reduced to extreme minuteness and never expands under cover of the calyx. 
The stamina are reduced to 5, but the sty'les occur in the typical number. The ovaries of these abnormal 
flowers are very generally fecundated. 
Some of the Hibisci of tropical Australia are useful as sorrel. The North Australian Gossypium Aus- 
trale (P. M. Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. i. 46) is not eligible for cotton cultivation, the seeds being but 
scantily clothed with fibre. The plant occasionally r regarded by settlers as a native cotton is Gomphocarpus 
arborescens, a naturalized asclepiadeous busli from South Africa, the seed-hair of which is unavailable for 
textile fabrics. The leaves of our malvaceous plants may serve for cataplasmata. The herb of Sida Law- 
rencia is useful as spinage. 
