MALLOW TRIBE. Ill 



are furnished with stipules and axillary flowers. They 

 are most abundant in the tropical regions, where they 

 form a large proportion of the vegetation, and gradually 

 decrease in number towards the poles. According to 

 Lindley, the number of species hitherto discovered 

 amounts to about a thousand, all of which agree in con- 

 taining a large quantity of mucilage, and being totally 

 destitute of unwholesome, qualities. In some species, 

 this mucilage, extracted by boiling the plant, especially 

 the root, is employed medicinally in alkying irritation, 

 both external and internal. Some few are used as food. 

 The bark of others affords an excellent substitute for 

 hemp. The cotton of commerce is obtained from the 

 appendage of the seeds of several species of Gossypium, 

 a family -belonging to this Order. As ornamental gar- 

 den flowers, Malope, several species of Hibiscus, and the 

 Hollyhock, are well known. The number of stove species 

 in cultivation is very great. 



1. MALVA (Mallow). Styles numerous ; outer calyx 

 3-leaved, inner 5-cleft. (Name from the Greek malake, 

 soft, from the emollient properties of the mucilage which 

 it contains.) 



2. LAV ATRA (Tree-Mallow). Styles numerous ; outer 

 calyx 3-lobed, inner 5-cleft. (Named in honour of the 

 two Lavaters, friends of Tournefort.) 



3. ALTILEA (Marsh-Mallow). Styles numerous ; outer 

 calyx 6 9 cleft. (Name from, the Greek dltho, to cure, 

 from its healing properties.) 



1. MALVA (Mallow). 



1. M. Sylvestris (Common Mallow). Stem ascending, 

 or erect ; root-leaves kidney-shaped, with 7 acute lobes ; 

 fruit-stalks erect ; fruit not downy, wrinkled. Eoad- 

 , sides and waste ground ; common. A robust herbaceous 

 plant, with large downy, lobed, but not deeply divided 

 leaves, branched stems, and showy purple flowers. When 

 the flowers first expand the plant is handsome, but as 



