FAMILIES OF FLOWEKING PLANTS 



171 



Family Malvaceae. Mallow Family. Contains about 40 genera 

 and 800 species, of wide distribution in both tropical and temperate 

 regions. The malloAvs are herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, with mostly 

 palmately-veined leaves and large flowers. The calyx, of 5 sepals, is 

 often surrounded by leafy bracts at the base. The petals are 5; sta- 

 mens numerous and always characteristic of the family on account of 

 their union hy the filaments into a single column closely surrounding 

 the pistil, when they are said to be monadelphons; this column is 

 well shown in the flower represented by Fig. 147. The ovary 



Fig. 151. Flowers and fruit of the chocolate tree ( Theobro^na Cacao). Redrawn from Engler. 



is several-celled, and the fruit is usually a capsule of several car- 

 pels. The mallow family as a whole possesses mucilaginous juice, 

 and also yields fibers of more or less value. Cotton is the product 

 of various species of Gossi/piitm. It consists of the tuft of fine 

 hairsattached to the seed, and known technically as the coma. 

 One or two species of wild cotton are found in the extreme 

 southern part of our country, but the commercial product is de- 

 rived from species of exotic origin (see Fig. 148). One of the largest 

 genera is Hibiscus, which furnishes us with such ornamental plants as 

 the garden hibiscus, and the shrubbj^ althea, which must not be con- 

 founded with the true Althea, one species of which {A. officinalis) fur- 

 nishes the marsh-mallow of commerce. H. camiahinus affords a jute- 



