PLATE XXXIII. 



1. LAVATERA TRIMESTRIS 



ANNUAL LAVATERA. 



THIS genus contains plants of the herbaceous shrubby perennial 

 kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Monadelphia Polyandria, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Columnifera. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a double perianthium : exte- 

 rior one-leafed, trifid, obtuse, short, permanent: interior one-leafed, 

 half five-cleft, more acute, more erect, permanent: the corolla has 

 five obcordate flat petals, spreading, affixed below to the tube of the 

 stamens: the stamina have numerous filaments, coalescing below into 

 a tube; loose above (gaping at the tip and surface of the tube): an- 

 thers reniform: the pislillum is an orbicular germ: style cylindric, 

 short: stigmas several (seven to fourteen), bristly, length of the style: 

 the pericarpium is an orbicular capsule, composed of as many cells 

 as there are stigmas, bivalve, and articulated in a whorl round 

 the columnar receptacle, at length falling off: the seeds solitary and 

 reniform. 



The species cultivated are: 1. L. CreticM, Cretan Lavatera; 

 2. L. trimestris, Common Annual Lavalera; 3. L. Thuringiaca, Great- 

 flowered Lavatera; 4. L. arborea, Tree Lavatera, or Mallow; 5. L. 

 Olbia, Downy-leaved Lavatera; 6. L. triloba, Three-lobed Lavatera; 

 7. L. Lusitanica, Portuguese Lavatera. 



The first has an annual fibrous root of thick fibres, a foot in 

 length, with innumerable other capillary fibres: the stem round, 

 rugged, five feet high, branched: the leaves on long petioles, very 

 soft, tomentose, toothed, seven-angled, the angles of the upper ones 



