I40 



MalvacecB. 



XXII.— MALVACE.^. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees, often with stellate hairs ; 1. alternate, 

 simple (very rarely compound), with stip. (absent in Cnllenia)\ 

 fl. regular, bisexual, usually with a whorl of (often connate) 

 bracteoles outside caL; sep. 5, more or less combined into a 

 cal., valvate; pet. 5, usually connate at base (very rarely o), 

 twisted ; stam. indef. (rarely def.), fil. usually monadelphous, 

 forming a tube adnate to base of pet., rarely in 5 bundles (in 

 Dicellostyles nearly distinct), anth. i -celled; ov. 2-many-celled, 

 with I or more axile (rarely erect) ovules in each cell ; styles 

 distinct or more or less connate ; fruit either apocarpous with 

 distinct dehiscent or indehiscent 1-5-seeded carp., or a loculi- 

 cidal capsule (in Jiilostylis i -seeded and indehiscent) ; seeds 

 with a curved embryo and leafy often crumpled cotyledons 

 (fleshy in CiUlenid) ; endosperm scanty or o. 



Stam. monadelphous. 



Ripe carp, separating from axis. 

 Styles as many as carp. 

 Carp. I -seeded 

 Carp. 3-5-seeded. 

 Fl. solitary axillary 

 Fl. in panicles . 

 Styles twice as many as carp. 

 Carp, set with spines 

 Carp, smooth 

 Fruit capsular. 



Stam. 10 . . . 



Stam. numerous. 

 Styles spreading, 2 

 Styles spreading, 5 

 Styles connate . 

 Stam. 5-adelphous {BombacecE). 

 Bracteoles o. Pet. conspicuous. 

 Stam. numerous ; style 5-fid 

 Stam. apparently 5 ; style undivided 

 Bracteoles 3-5. Pet. o . . . 



The large majority of our 36 species are coarse weedy plants of waste 

 ground and roadsides, some of doubtful nativity in Ceylon, but now 

 found throughout the tropical belt of the world. The curious tree, 

 Cui/ema, extends into the montane zone, and another montane species 

 is the beautiful Hibiscus angulosus^ var. purpureus ; nearly all the rest 

 are confined to the low country, and are especially common in the dry 

 region, to which the genus Favotiia is confined. 



Malvwitrum triciispidatum^h. Gray, is recorded, as M. carpinifolium.^ 



I. SiD.\. 



