Jussieuean, or Natural, System of Plants, 337 



Order XXII. FRANKENU^C^^. 



Distinguished from Caryophylleae by the fruit not having a 

 central separate placenta, but bearing the seeds on the inner 

 margin of the valves. The species are natives of arid situ- 

 ations in Europe, Africa, and South America. They have 

 not much beauty, and no known medical properties. Besides 

 the genus here recorded, there are two others mentioned by 

 M. becandolle. 



Frank enifl L. 



Order XXIII. Mk\N KQ^M. 

 Before this order was dismembered of Bombaceae and 

 Byttner/«V^^, it contained most of the grandest flowers in 

 nature. Even now, the splendour of the various species of 

 ikfalva, ^Ithae'a (to which the hollyhock belongs), and ii/ibis- 

 cus, renders it one of the most remarkable groups of plants. 

 With the exception of the numerous genus »Sida, nearly all 

 Malvaceae are objects worthy of the gardener's care, particu- 

 larly those which are hardy. In stove or greenhouse, the 

 softness of their branches and leaves renders them peculiarly 

 liable to the attacks of the red spider, mealy bug, and scale, 

 from which few collections are free.; a circumstance which 

 makes them less generally esteemed than the surpassing beauty 

 of many of them merits. The greater part of the order is 

 clothed with stellate pubescence, and a reniform one- celled 

 anther is a character common to the whole. These two pecu- 

 liarities, together with the alternate stipulate leaves, distin- 

 guish Malvaceae from all the rest of Dichlamydeae. All the 

 species abound in a nutritive mucilage ; a quality which ren- 

 ders the young heads of the ochro (Hibiscus esculentus), an 

 object of great value within the tropics, as an ingredient in 

 soups : in Brazil, the Abutilon esculentum serves the same 

 purposes. The emollient properties of ^Ithae'a officinalis, or 

 guimauve of the French, are well known to physicians, as a 

 remedy for catarrhs and pulmonary complaints : a decoction 

 of the leaves of Sphseralcea cisplatina is used for similar ob- 

 jects in Brazil. A species of Pavon/a is employed in the 

 latter country as a diuretic, in the form of a decoction. The 

 straight shoots of *Sida micrantha are employed as rocket- 

 sticks at Rio Janeiro : the chewed leaves of »Sida carpinifolia 

 allay the inflammation occasioned by the stings of wasps. 

 The tough fibres of many Malvaceae are manufactured into 

 cordage : their petals are astringent ; whence those of //ibis- 

 cus 7?osa sinensis are used in China to blacken the eyelashes, 

 and the leather of shoes. The fibrous threads in which the 

 seeds of Gossypium are enveloped furnish the valuable cot- 

 VoL. I. — No. 4. A A 



