MONADELPHIA— POLYANDRIA. Lavalera. 1247 



M. montunix, sive Alcea rotundifolia laciniata. Coltimji. Ecplir. 



148. t. 147. 

 Alcea tenuifolia crispa, Bauh. Hist. v. 2. \067.f. Dili, in Raii 



Syn. 253. 

 A. vulgaris. Raii Sijn. ed. 2. 139. ed. 3. 252. All the synonyms, 



in both places, wrong. 

 A. folio rotundo laciniato. Bauh. Pin. 3 1 6. Moris, c. 2. 527. sect. 5. 



/. 18./.4. 

 In the grassy borders of fields, and by way sides, on a gravelly soil. 

 Perennial. July, August. 



Rout tough and woody. Herb bright green, more or less rough 

 with spreading, simple, not starry, hairs, unaccompanied by 

 any short, dense, woolly pubescence, and exhaling a musky 

 odour, especially in hot weather, or when drawn lightly through 

 the hand. Stems about 2 feet high, leafy, round, but little 

 branched. Radical leaves on long stalks, smaller, rounder, and 

 less deeply lobed than the upper ones, soon withering away ; 

 stem leave's divided to the very base into 5 pinnatitid lobes, all 

 whose segments are linear, acute, channelled, and frequently 

 undulated, usually in some degree hairy, seldom quite smooth. 

 Fl. on long, axillary, sim]Dle stalks, rose-coloured, large and 

 handsome. Cal. paler than the foliage, coarsely hairy or bristly; 

 its 3 outer leaves linear-lanceolate. PcL wedge-shaped, slightly 

 cloven, jagged. Caps, clothed with dense silky hairs. 

 The white- flowered variety, figured by Dr. Sims, is l<ept for cu- 

 riosity in gardens. It differs in no other respect from the, more 

 beautiful, wild plant. The musky scent undoubtedly proceeds 

 from the herbage, as described in Fl. Br. and Engl. Bot., not 

 from the flowers. 

 We scarcely ever find our great countryman, Ray, in an error, 

 but in this instance he mistook the plant of the Bauhins, whose 

 Jkea vulgaris is Malva Alcea of Linnaeus, Ehrh. PL Off'. 118, 

 figured in Miller's Iconcs, M7, andin Petiv. H. Brit. /. 39./.12. 

 Miller indeed, like Hudson, has erred in making both these 

 plants natives of England, and many authors have either taken 

 them for the same, or confounded their synonyms. M. Alcea may 

 be clearly known bv the broader and more flat segments of its 

 leaves; somewhat starry, depressed pubescence, which is very 

 dense and malted uj)on the calyx ; but mo'-t essentially by the 

 outer leaves of this jxut being ovate. Tiie stems too are taller, 

 and the plant has no smell of musk. 



349. I.AVATERA. Tree-mallow. 



Li«H. 6'e/i. 354. Juss.27-2. Fl. Br.742. DeCand. Prodr. v.\.438. 

 Dill. Gen. 155 f. 10. Lam. ^582. Gcerln. t. ISO'. 



Nat. Ord. see n. 317. 



Cal. double, permanent ; oulcr lari^est, of 1 leaf, m 3 broad, 

 dcoji, spreading scgnicnts ; iiuicr of 1 leaf, dixidcd half 



