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PLANTS AND MAN 



an Asiatic species, related to Hibiscus, with smaller white, pink 

 or purple bell-shaped flowers. A member of the family more 

 familiar to residents of temperate United States is the holly- 

 hock, introduced from China, which produces the tall terminal 

 spikes of large white or rose-pink flowers usually seen in eastern 

 old fashioned gardens (fig. 304). 



r- 



Fig. 304. — The hollyhock is an ornamental member of the Mallow Family. 



In the Potato Family we find the petunia, a South American 

 and Mexican genus; each flower — which may be pink, white or 

 purple — has a five parted calyx and an elongated tubular corolla 

 which widens to form a five lobed margin. 



The Thistle Family has contributed a great number of orna- 

 mental species to our American gardens. Because of the grouping 

 ot hundreds of flowers into a single head, members of this and 

 other Composite families are characterized by unusually attrac- 

 tive inflorescences (flg. 305). Zinnias, natives of Mexico and 

 tropical America, have yellow ray flowers and yellow or orange 



