MALVACEAE. IGl 



ORDER XVII.— M A L V A C E iE. 



Herbs, shrubs, or soft-wooded trees, often clothed with stellate 

 pubescence. Leaves alternate, generally palmately nerved, entire 

 or more or less deeply divided in a palmate manner. Stipules free, 

 often deciduous, sometimes very small or inconspicuous. Flowers 

 regular, perfect, usually handsome pui'ple, rose-colour, yelloAV, or 

 white, solitary and axillary, often arranged in irregular racemes or 

 panicles. Calyx persistent, of 5 (rarely 3 or 4) sepals more or 

 less united, with the lobes valvate in eestivation ; often with an 

 epicalyx or involucre composed of 3 or more bracts resembling an 

 outer whorl of sepals. Petals 5, hypogynous, usually adhering to 

 the stamineal column at the base, contorted, imbricated in aestiva- 

 tion. Stamens indefinite, hypogynous, and with the filaments 

 more or less united at the base, so as to form a column surrounding 

 the styles. Anthers 1-celled, with a more or less complete sup- 

 pression of the septum. Torus small, or forming a conical point in 

 the centre of the carpels, sometimes produced beyond the carpels 

 and dilated at the apex. Ovary free, consisting of numerous 

 carpels disposed round the torus, rarely reduced to 1. Style simple 

 at the base, dividing into branches at the apex. Placeuta3 in the 

 interior augle of the carpels, with one or more amphitropous or 

 sub-anatropous ovules. Emit generally dry, sometimes separating 

 into cocca, sometimes forming a many-celled capsule, which dehisces 

 loculicidally, more rarely indehiscent. Seeds uniform, sub-globose 

 or ovoid, with the testa commonly crustaceous, and sometimes 

 hairy or woolly, or rarely enclosed in a fleshy arillus. Albumen 

 small in quantity or none. Embryo with the cotyledons gene- 

 rally broad, foliaceous, or more or less folded. Radicle near the 

 hilum. 



All the British species belong to the tribe Malvese, which has 

 the stamineal column bearing anthers to the apex, the style with 

 as many branches as there are cells or divisions in the ovary, the 

 cotyledons foliaceous and folded ; and to the sub-tribe eu-Malvea?, 

 which has the carpels arranged in a single whorl, separating from 

 the torus when mature as indehiscent cocca, and the ovules solitary, 

 ascending. . 



VOL. II. Y 



