110 BRITISH BOTANY. 



MALVACE^, Juss. The Mallow Family. 



Biennial or perennial, herbaceous plants, sometimes half- 

 shrubby at the base, with mucilaginous juice. Leaves palmate 

 or lobed, stipulate. Flowers regular, solitary or several, axillary 

 or terminal. Sepals 5, persistent, rarely 3-4, with a calycule 

 (outer or secondary calyx), valvular in prefloration. Petals 5, 

 caducous, twisted in prefloration. Stamens indefinite, with com- 

 bined filaments (monadelphous) ; anthers free, opening by a 

 curved slit. Styles united at the base, free above. Fruit com- 

 posed of numerous distinct one-seeded carpels, circularly ar- 

 ranged around a common axis, rarely baccate. Seeds reniform. 

 Perisperm none " or in small quantity." Embryo plicate, with 

 leafy cotyledons. Radicle approaching the hilum. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENEBA. 



Malva. — CalycvJe (outer calyx) three-leaved, attached to the inner five-cleft 



calyx. 

 Alth^a. — Calyciile monophyllous (of one leaf), springing from the peduncle. 

 Lavateea. — Calycule trifid, springing from the peduncle. 



Malva, Lin. — Leaves palmately lobed or palmately divided. 

 Flowers roseate or purple, and striated, solitary or fascicled (in 

 tufts) . Calycule composed of 3 free leaflets (bracts) growing out 

 of the calyx. Calyx five-cleft. Fruit depressed, orbicular, com- 

 posed of numerous one-seeded carpels in a whorl around a common 

 central axis, separating when ripe. 



M. moschata, Lin. Musk Mallow. — e.b. 754. l.b.s. 204. 

 A. 16. C. 60. Lat. 50-57°. Alt. 0-200 yds. Tern. 52-47°. 



Stems erect, round, hairy, leafy. Root-leaves roundish, cor- 

 date or truncate at the base, with crenidate lobes, stem-leaves, 

 deeply palmate in 3-5 divisions, which are again palmately or pin- 

 nately divided, the ultimate segments linear, entire or incised. 

 Flowers axillary and terminal, solitary, on filiform, bracteate 

 pedicels, often contiguous. Calyx lax, somewhat membranous, 

 6-7-lobed, with a few linear bracts which spring from the pe- 

 duncle, and not from the calyx."^ Corolla roseate. Carpels hairy, 

 not reticulate. 



In woods and dry places. Per. ; July-September. 



* Probably this is only an individual rather than a specific character ; but the 

 origin of the calycine bracts {i. e. either from the peduncle or from the calyx) is not 

 a satisfactory generic distinction. 



