58 THALAMIFLOR.'E, 



wasliing Osnaburgs and otlier coarse cloths. An infusion of 

 leaves is employed as a wash for the hair, giving it a glossy 

 appearance, as if from oil. 



2. Malva spicata. Spike-flowered Mallow. 



Leaves ovate or subcordate scabrous above stellato- 

 tomeiitose beneath, flowers in an ovate or oblong 

 spike, carpels 14 glabrous awnless I -seeded. 



Shane, I. 219. t. 137 Browne, 282.— Caw. diss. II. t. 20. 



f. A.—De Cand. Prod. I. 430. 



HAB. Common. 



FL. After tlie autumnal rains. 



Stem 2-3 feet in height, sufFruticose, branched, incano- 

 tomentose with stellated hairs. The larger leaves subcordate ; 

 tlie smaller ones ovate, serrated. Spikes axillary and terminal, 

 at first ovate, afterwards oblong. Flowers subsessile, of an 

 orange colour, with two small linear hairy bracteoles at tlieir 

 base. Leaflets of the involucellum 3, lanceolate, attenuated, 

 toraentose, length of the calyx. Calyx acutely 5-fid to the mid- 

 dle, hirsute, intermixed with a stellated pubescence. Petals 

 spreading, unequally obcordate. Column of the filaments stel- 

 lato-puberulous. Ovary orbiculate, depressed in the centre: 

 styles 10, cohering at the base, spreading towards the apex : 

 stigmata obtuse. Carpels 12-14-15, glabrous. 



By no means an attractive plant. Common by the roadsides, 

 and in waste places. 



3. Malva prostrata. Spreadifig Mallow. 



Leaves palmato-5-lobed inciso-dentate, pedicels so- 

 litary longer than the petiole, fruit glabrous, petals 

 entire, carpels bivalve 2-seeded. — De Cand. 



Cav. diss. II. t. 16. f. Q.—De Cand. Prod. I. 436 — Bot. 

 Mag. 2515. 



HAB. Near Clifton-mount. 

 FL. Autumn. 



II. Malachra. 



General involucre 3-5 leaved surrounding a head 

 of flowers. Calyx surrounded by its proper involu- 

 cellum, 8-12 leaved ; leaflets linear or setiform. 

 Carpels 5, disposed in a circle, 1 -seeded. — De Cand. 



Name, applied by Pliny to a tree in Persia, producing a gum, 

 but which has no connection with any of the species compre- 

 hended in this genus. 



