350 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



which I may add, that they are so exactly delineated, 

 and curiously engraven, that for their elegancy alone they 

 may invite the curious in sculpture to purchase the book. 

 But, besides the subject of the work, that is, the 

 descriptions of the more rare plants therein contained, 

 the author gives us some remarkable observations by the 

 by, as p. 19, &c. An exact division of mallows, or mal- 

 vaceous plants, which he distinguishes into two kinds. 

 1. Such as bear naked seeds. 2. Such as bear seeds 

 inclosed in cases or vessels. To this last kind he appro- 

 priates the name of Althcea, referring the common Althaa 

 of the shops to Malva strictly so called. I think it had 

 been more proper, to avoid confusion and mistake, to 

 have left in quiet possession of the name Althcea the plant 

 on which it was imposed by the ancients, by which that 

 plant is denoted in ah 1 the writings of herbarists and 

 physicians, ancient and modern, and imposed a new name 

 on the Indian Mallow \Hibiscus, Linn.], as M. Tournefort 

 hath done, viz. Ketmia. Such as bear naked seeds he 

 divides into Malvce, in specie so called, and Alcea. The 

 notes of Malva he constitutes many naked semilunary seeds, 

 disposed in the form of a rundle or placenta, a double calyx 

 divided into eight segments, or more, as it were into so 

 many leaves. Flowers made up of five leaves or petala 

 joined at the bottom, and a style in the middle, furnished 

 with many apices ; or, instead of such style, made up of 

 many leaves. Simple leaves, alternately situate, either 

 roundish or oblong, either entire and undivided, or 

 divided, but not deeply. Those called by the name of 

 Alcea are, he saith, of two kinds. Those of the first kind 

 agree in their principal parts with Mallows [Malva], only 

 their stalks and leaves are somewhat more rough, and 

 these divided into narrower and deeper lacineae, or jags. 

 Their flowers have no petala in the middle, but a style 

 with many apices, proceeding sometimes singly, sometimes 

 many together, out of the bosoms of the leaves. Those 

 of the latter kind have naked triangular seeds, five for 

 the most part, rarely more or fewer, close joined together 



