138 MALLOW FAMILY 



Capsule small, globose, prickly. Plants 3-5 ft. tall, branched, 

 pubescent. Leaves alternate, broad, toothed, often 3-lobed, 

 1-4 in. long. Waste places. Blooming all the year. Fla. 



MALLOW FAMILY (Malvaceae) 



Chiefly shrubs or shrubby plants. Leaves alternate, toothed 

 or lobed. Petals 5, united at base. Stamens many, united in 

 tube. 



The mallow family, from which the Hindu god of love 

 chose one of the five flowers with which he tipped his ar- 

 rows, has representatives in every nook and corner of 

 the Florida peninsula. In parks and gardens the red 

 flame of the cultivated hibiscus glows the year around, 

 borders of swamps are gay in summer with wild hibiscus, 

 and several of our lowly wayside weeds are mallows. 



A peculiarity of this family is that each flower con- 

 tains many stamens, whose filaments are united in a 

 column surrounding the pistil. This in an exaggerated 

 form is seen in the hibiscus, whose stamen tube is long 

 in comparison with that of the weeds described below. The 

 five petals are slightly united at the base, as are the five 

 sepals, and below them in several genera an involucre of 

 bracts appears like a second calyx. 



Clothing, food, and medicine are obtained from this 

 large family. Strong fibers and mucilaginous sap are 

 found in many species, and altheas, arbutilons, malvaviscus, 

 hollyhocks, okra, and cotton are among its many cultivated 

 members. 



Hibiscus. Eose Mallow (Genus Hibiscus) 



One of the most striking of our wild mallows is the 

 brilliant E. coccineus, whose large crimson flowers blaze 

 in summer from the borders of swamps. Another beautiful 

 native species, H. grandiflonis, has immense pale pink 



