Classification of Plants 239 



Natal. The flowers are showy, with white or purple sepals 

 and petals. The stamens are sensitive, and spring outward 

 on being touched. The outer filaments are staminodia. In 

 South Africa the stamens are yellow, the staminodia purple- 

 tipped. 



'Flowers five-parted — 



Grewia. — Trees or shrubs with purple or yellow flowers 

 and a 4-lobed drupe, containing 2-4 hard-shelled nuts. 



Triumfetta. — Shrubs or herbs with small yellow or orange 

 flowers. Capsule covered with long hooked or straight 

 bristles. 



Corchorus. — Herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate, often 

 bordered with long sharp points. Flowers yellow, on simple 

 or branched stalks. The plants are cultivated in India for 

 their fibres, which are woven into coarse cloth for gunny sacks. 



Order Malvaceae. 



Flowers perfect, regular. Sepals valvate, often surrounded 

 by a circle of bracts (epicalyx). Petals 5, twisted in the 

 bud. The stamens are always joined to form a tube (mona- 

 delphous), and attached to the petals at the base, so that at 

 first the corolla seems gamopetalous. The stamens branch at 

 the top, so that a great many half anthers are present (anthers 

 with but one cell). The fruit is a capsule or a schizocarp with 

 several carpels. The flower-stalk is jointed below the flower. 

 The cotton plant {Gossypiuni) belongs to this order. 



A. Fruit of separate carpels. Stamens bearing anthers at or to the 

 very top.- 

 B. Stigmas as many as the carpels. 

 C. Styles thread-like. 



Althea. — Epicalyx 6-9-leaved. 

 Malva. — Epicalyx 3-leaved. 

 CC. Stigmas cushion-like. 



D. Epicalyx present, 3-parted. 



Malvastrum. — Carpels with i ovule. 

 Sphaeralcea. — Carpels with 2-3 ovules. 

 DD. Epicalyx wanting. 

 Sida. — Carpels i-seeded. 

 Abutilon.— Carpels 3-12-seeded. 



