io6 SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING PLANTS, 



General Description of the Pink Family. 



Herbs — "With stems having thickened nodes. 



Leaves — Opposite, and entire — that is, with a smooth 

 edge. 



Flowers — Regular ; sepals, coherent or free ; petals, 

 clawed or not ; stamens, often twice the number of 

 petals ; pistil, with coherent ovaries, but with styles 

 free. 



Fruit. — A capsule with a free, central placenta bear- 

 ing many seeds. 



Malvaceae. 



The Mallow, Hibiscus, and Cotton Family. 



This order contains 700 species of 59 genera in 

 4 tribes ; 10 genera are in South Africa. The only 

 mallow (Mal'va) is an introduced plant (if. parvi- 

 flo'ra). It is cultivated in Egypt and elsewhere as 

 a pot-herb, but is a common weed by roadsides. No 

 member of this family is poisonous, 



Hibis'cus. — This genus has twenty species in South 

 Africa, of which R. ^thiop'icus occurs on grassy hills 

 throughout the Colony. It is a dwarf plant with five to 

 seven stipulate, dentate, or toothed-edged leaves, covered 

 with stellate — that is, star-shaped hairs. The flower has 

 numerous little bracts round the base of the calyx. 



