ISi * XXI. MALVACE.I^. 



OiiDEn XXL MALVACEiE. 



T'lowers regular, usually liermaphvodite or rarely partially dioecious or 

 polygamous. Sepals 5, rarely 3 or 4, more or less united in a lobed or entire 

 calyx, the loLes valvate or very rarely slightly inibricate. Petals 5, hypo- 

 gynous, usually adnata at the base to the staniiual coliunUj contorted in the 

 bud, rarely wanting. Stamens indefinite, hypogynous, more or less united at 

 the base, the column divided into filaments at the top or bearing the fila- 

 ments outside, below or up to the top, Antliers from globose to linear, often 

 reniform or variously waved, 1-celled or spuriously divided into two cells by 

 a thin and ineomDJete lono-itudinal scDtum. Torus small or conical and pro- 



truding into the centre of the ovary, not expanded into a disk. Ovary 2- or 

 more-celled (very rarely reduced to a single carpel), entire or lobed, the car- 

 pels verticillate round the axis or (in genera not Australian) irregularly clus- 

 tered. Style simple at the base, divided at the top into as many or twice as 

 many branches or stigrnas as there are cells, or rarely entire and clavate. 

 Ovules 1 or more in each cell, ascending or horizontal, with a ventral or 

 superior raphe, or reversed and pendulous, with the raphe dorsal. Fruit dry ^ 

 or rarely baccate, the carpels separating and indehiscent or 2-valved, or united 

 in a loculicidally dehiscent capsule. Seeds with the testa usually crustaceous, 

 without or with very little albumen ; cotyledons usually folded and often eu- 

 cloiing tlie ciu'ved or rarely straight radicle. — Herbs, shrubs, or soft-wooded 

 trees, the hajrs usunlly stellate. Leaves alternate, mostly toothed, lobed or 

 divided, with palmate nerves or divisions, rarely digit ately compound. Sti- 

 pules free, usually subulate or small ami deciduous, rarely leafy. Peduncles 

 usually 1-tlowered and articulate above the middle, rarely bearing a bract at 

 the joint or several-flowered, all axillary or the upper ones forming a teruiiual 

 raceme or panicle. Bracteoles either iione or 3 or more, free or united, form- 

 ing an involucre close to or adherent to the calyx. Flowers often large, 

 usually purple, red, or yellow. 



^ A large Order generally dispersed over all except the coldest rcj^ions of the globe, dis- 

 tinguished from SterculiaceiB and TlUacem by the l-culled anthers,' and from all others by 

 the valvate calyx and moiiadelphous hy])ogynous stamens. Of the 15 following genera, l^^f"^ 

 more or less tropieal, 6 being connnoii to the warmer re^zions of both the New and the Old 

 "World; 3, Malvasirum, Pavouia, and Farjosla, chiefly American, or American and African, 

 hut not Asiatic; and 2, Th^spesm ^u^' Jdnusonla, African and Asiatic. Lavaiera \^ a 

 Mediterranean form, represented by one species in extratropical Australia, the remaining 

 three arc endenuc or nearly so, Flagianthns being also renrescuted iu New Zealand and 

 Lagunaria in Norfolk Island. 



Tribe I. Malveac—S/^rw/zm/ coJamn hearing jV am ents to the snmmit. Style-lranclm 

 the same number as ovarg-celh. Mature carjiek seimrallng more or less from the axis (i^n- 

 ferpcthj so in Howittia mtd some Abutila). 



Ovules solitary in each eel!, ascending with a ventral raphe. 



Style-branches lined with deeurrent stigmas. 

 • Bracteoles 3 to 6, united at the base 1. Lavateka. 



Bracteoles 3, distinct '.'.!!!!'. 3Ialva (p. 1^6). 



Stigmas terminal, capitate or truncate. Bracteoles' 1 to 3 distinct,* 



or none . ,2. IMalvastr^'^^' 



Ovules solitary in each cell, pendulous or horizontal with a dorsnl"rapho. 

 Bracteoles none. 

 Styles with deciurent stigmas. Flowers more or less diwcioiis . . 3. PLAGiA>rurs. 



