AttHra ofrtcrwatts. ORD. XXXI. Columnifere. 553 
THE root is perennial, long, tough, white, and fibrous: the stalk 
‘is upright, firm, woolly, somewhat branched towards the top, and 
rises to the height of three or four feet: the leaves are ovalish, 
or heart-shaped, commonly with a lobe on each side, pointed, 
irregularly serrated, covered with a soft down, and stand upon 
long round footstalks: the stipule are two, narrow, and placed 
at the base of each leaf-stalk: the flowers are large, and consist of 
five petals, inversely heart-shaped, indented at the apex, and of a 
pale purple colour: the calyx is double, the exterior consisting, 
of nine and the interior of five narrow pointed segments: the 
stamina are numerous, united at the base, and terminated by 
kidney-shaped anthera: the germen is orbicular: the styli cylin- 
drical, and furnished with many long bristly stigmata: the seeds 
are kidney-shaped, numerous, placed in a circle, and covered 
with an arillus. It is a native of England, and grows commonly 
near the sea shore, or about salt marshes, and flowers in August. 
The Althza seems to have been known to the ancients,* and has 
continued in very general officinal use by practitioners in every 
country where the science of medicine is regularly. cultivated. 
«« The dry roots of this plant, boiled in water, give out half their 
weight of a gummy matter,}which, on evaporating the aqueous 
fluid, forms a flavourless yellowish mucilage. The leaves afford 
scarcely one-fourth of their weight, and the flowers and seeds 
still less.”"* This gluten or mucilaginous matter with which the 
* It is called Althea, says Dioscorides, da ro wodvadbes auras a multiplici excel- 
lentique quam in methodo prestat utilitate. 1. 3. c. 163. p. 236. Hence also 
vismalva & bismalva, malvaviscus, malva-ibiscus, (Alston Lect, on the Mat. Med.) 
and therefore may be supposed to be the hibiscus of Virgil :— 
Heedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco, 
. Ec, ii. 2. 30. et Ec. x, 7. 71. 
+ This is thought to be nearly allied to Gum arabic, Tragacanth, Starch, &c. 
and it has been found to dissolve myrrh, and some other resinous substances, more 
readily than the first, Buchholz Act. Nat, Cur. Tom. p. 60. Expt. 32. 
: » Lewis Mat. Med. p. 40. 
No. 46.—vo1. 4. vA 
