Part 38 (1/2)
Calyx naked at the base, 5-toothed. Petals entire. _Flowers dicious_; the staminate flowers dest.i.tute of pistils, with 15--20 anthers; the fertile with a short column of filaments but usually no anthers. Styles 8--10, stigmatic along the inside. Fruit depressed-globular, separating when ripe into as many kidney-shaped 1-seeded beakless and scarcely dehiscent carpels as there are styles. Radicle pointing downward.--A tall roughish perennial herb, with very large 9--11-parted lower leaves, the pointed lobes pinnatifid-cut and toothed, and with small white flowers in panicled cl.u.s.tered corymbs. (Named from ??p?, a glade or dell, or, poetically, a nymph of the glades.)
1. N. diica, L. Stems nearly simple, 5--9 high.--Penn. to Va., and west to Iowa and Minn.; rare. July.
5. MALVaSTRUM, Gray. FALSE MALLOW.
Calyx with an involucel of 2 or 3 bractlets, or none. Petals notched at the end or entire. Styles 5 or more; stigmas capitate. Carpels as in Malva, or else as in Sida, but the solitary kidney-shaped seed ascending and the radicle pointing downward, as in the former. (Name altered from _Malva_.)
1. M. angustum, Gray. Annual, slightly hairy, erect (6'--1 high); leaves lance-oblong or linear, with scattered fine callous teeth; flowers in the upper axils, on peduncles shorter than the broadly ovate-triangular sepals; bractlets and stipules setaceous; petals yellow, scarcely exceeding the calyx; carpels 5, kidney-shaped, smooth, at length 2-valved.--W. Tenn. to Iowa and Kan. Aug.
2. M. coccineum, Gray. Perennial, low and h.o.a.ry; leaves 5-parted or pedate, flowers in short spikes or racemes, the pink-red petals very much longer than the calyx; carpels 10 or more, reticulated on the sides and indehiscent.--Minn. to W. Tex., and westward.
6. SDA, L.
Calyx naked at the base, 5-cleft. Petals entire, usually oblique. Styles 5 or more, tipped with capitate stigmas; the ripe fruit separating into as many 1-seeded carpels, which are closed, or commonly 2-valved at the top, and tardily separate from the axis. Seed pendulous. Embryo abruptly bent; the radicle pointing upward. (A name used by Theophrastus.)
1. S. Napae'a, Cav. A smooth, tall (4--10 high) perennial; _leaves 3--7-cleft_, the lobes oblong and pointed, toothed; _flowers (white) umbellate-corymbed_, 1' wide; carpels 10, pointed.--Rocky river-banks, along the Alleghanies, Penn. to Va., rare. (Cultivated in old gardens.)
2. S. Elliottii, Torr. & Gray. A smooth, erect perennial (1--4 high); _leaves linear_, serrate, short-petioled; peduncles axillary, 1-flowered, short; _flowers (yellow)_ rather large; _carpels 9--10, slightly and abruptly pointed_, forming a depressed fruit.--Sandy soil, S. Va. and southward. May--Aug.
S. SPINSA, L. Annual weed, minutely and softly p.u.b.escent, low (10--20'
high), much branched; _leaves ovate-lanceolate or oblong_, serrate, rather long-petioled; peduncles axillary, 1-flowered, shorter than the petiole; _flowers (yellow)_ small; _carpels 5_, combined into an ovate fruit, _each splitting at the top into 2 beaks_.--A little tubercle at the base of the leaves on the stronger plants gives the specific name, but it cannot be called a spine.--Waste places, S. New York to Iowa, and common southward. (Nat. from the tropics.)
7. SPHaeRaLCEA, St. Hil.
Ovules and seeds usually 2 or 3 in each cell. Characters otherwise as in Malvastrum. (Name from sfa??a, _a sphere_, and ????a, _a mallow_--from the commonly spherical fruit.)
1. S. aceriflia, Nutt. Perennial, erect, 2--6 high, stellately p.u.b.escent or glabrate; leaves maple-shaped, 3--7-cleft; flowers cl.u.s.tered in the upper axils and subspicate, rose-color to white.--Kankakee Co., Ill., _E. J. Hill_; Dak. and westward.
8. ABuTILON, Tourn. INDIAN MALLOW.
Carpels 2--9-seeded, at length 2-valved. Radicle ascending or pointing inward. Otherwise as in Sida. (Name of unknown origin.)
A. AVICeNNae, Gaertn. (VELVET-LEAF.) Tall annual (4 high); leaves roundish-heart-shaped, taper-pointed, velvety; peduncles shorter than the leaf-stalks; corolla yellow; carpels 12--15, hairy, beaked.--Waste places, escaped from gardens. (Adv. from India.)
9. MODOLA, Moench.
Calyx with a 3-leaved involucel. Petals obovate. Stamens 10--20. Stigmas capitate. Carpels 14--20, kidney-shaped, pointed, and at length 2-valved at the top; the cavity divided into two by a cross part.i.tion, with a single seed in each cell.--Humble, proc.u.mbent or creeping annuals or biennials, with cut leaves and small purplish flowers solitary in the axils. (Name from _modiolus_, the broad and depressed fruit resembling in shape the Roman measure of that name.)
1. M. multifida, Moench. Hairy; leaves 3--5-cleft and incised; stamens 15--20; fruit hispid at the top.--Low grounds, Va. and southward.
10. KOSTELeTZKYA, Presl.
Pod depressed, with a single seed in each cell. Otherwise as Hibiscus.
(Named after _V. F. Kosteletzky_, a Bohemian botanist.)
1. K. Virginica, Gray. Roughish-hairy perennial (2--4 high); leaves halberd-shaped and heart-shaped, the lower 3-lobed; corolla 2' wide, rose-color; column slender.--Marshes on the coast, N. Y. and southward.