DICOTYLEDONS MALVACEAE DIAGRAM 15. 



191 



FAMILY MALVACEAE. 

 [ DIAGRAM 15. ] 



This family contains various low plants, such as the hollyhock, 

 mallow, and marsh-mallow. But it also includes large trees, and 

 among others, one of the largest known, the baobab. One of the 

 most useful plants to man, the 

 cotton plant, also belongs to 

 this family, The Malvaceae 

 have generally beautiful 

 flowers ; the calyx is in a 

 single piece, and the corolla 

 has five petals. The sta- 

 mens are very numerous, and 

 soldered together round the 

 pistil, which is thus enclosed 

 in a kind of sheath. The 

 fruit is a capsule, containing 

 a variable number of seeds. Mallow. 



The Cotton plant is a shrub which grows in hot countries. It is a 

 textile plant ; but the material which it yields is not obtained from 

 the stalk as in the hemp, but is found in the fruit. The cotton plant 

 bears a beautiful yellow flower, and the capsule which succeeds it 

 opens in several valves when ripe. The cotton is then seen inside 

 the capsule, forming a lining packed round the seeds. It is 

 roughly cleared from the husk, and packed in bales to be exported 

 to countries where it does not grow. It is an article of great 

 commercial importance. It is first cleaned and carded, to free it 

 from the seeds which still remain in it. It is then spun and woven 

 to make calico. When coloured designs are printed on it, it is called 

 print. Whole countries live by the cotton trades ; both those 

 where it is cultivated, and those where it is spun, woven, or 

 printed. The cotton trade is one of the most important in the 

 world. 



