G6 



MALVA INVOLUCRATA. 



This name was first applied by De Candolle to a plant belonging to the Holly- 

 worts, tbougb this application of it was but little known, and scarcely recognised ; 

 it was afterwards bestowed on certain North American plants of the Mallow tribe, 

 which appeared to differ from the true Mallows in the absence, or deciduous nature 

 of the involucre found beneath the calyx of those plants ; but this genus haying 

 been, by general consent, abandoned in its turn, the name is now conferred upon a 

 group of Rosacea, of which one species, the N. cerasiformis, a Californian shrub, 

 with white flowers, has been already introduced to our gardens. 



The interesting plants hitherto known as Nuttallia pedata, N. digitata, N. papa- 

 veracea, N. cordata, N. grandiflora, with the plant now figured, are therefore 

 transferred to the genus Malva, from which they differ in no essential point. The 

 whole of these North American Mallows are exceedingly interesting plants, but 

 from various causes they are yet scarce in this country. In fact, with the exception 

 of pedata and grandiflora, which are kept by a few Nurs erymen, the others, as far 

 as we can learn, are only procurable from private collectio ns. This scarcity may be 

 in part due to the difficulty with which cuttings are obtained, and partly to their 

 being natives of the Southern States, and, therefore, liable to perish in severe 

 winters. 



The present species, involucrata, is from Texas, but is likely to"" prove quite hardy. 

 It produces from a central root several decumbent branches, eighteen inches to two 

 feet long, the extremities of which have a tendency to grow erect. The leaves are 

 all on long petioles, and deeply divided, and from the axils of the upper ones are 

 produced numerous showy flowers, on erect stalks. Beneath each flower is an ' 

 involucre, composed of three narrow lance -shaped spreading leaflets, about two- 

 tbirds the length of the calyx, by which this species may be readily distinguished 

 from the other plants hitherto known as Nuttallias, which have no involucre. The 

 calyx itself is divided into five narrow acute segments, and as well as all the 

 other parts of the plant is very hairy. The petals are broad, wedge shaped, blunt> 

 and slightly jagged at the extremity ; of a deep reddish-purple colour, with a 

 whitish yellow spot at the base of each, which forms by their union a cream- 

 coloured ring in the centre of the flower. 



In all this there is nothing remarkable, nor in what follows, beyond what is 

 common to the other Malva ; but, as the first plant we have brought under the 

 notice of our readers belonging to this Order, we may appropriately point out the 

 staminal tube formed by the cohesion of the numerous filaments, a feature so 

 characteristic of this Order, and the slender spreading styles and stigmas of the 

 same number as the carpels composing the ovary. This consists in the genus 

 Maha, of a number of small compressed bodies, each containing a single seed, 

 arranged around a central axis; forming aggregately a flattened disk-like fruit 

 (the ' cheeses ' of our younger days) which separates, when ripe, into distinct 



