32 MALVACEAE. Lavuttra. 



Order XX. MALVACE^. 



Herbs or shrubs, with nmcilaginuus juice, a tough iibrous inner bark, alternate 

 leaves with stipules, and often a stellate pubescence ; distinguished from all related 

 orders by the valvato calyx, convohito petals, their baaes or short claws united with 

 each other and with the base of a culumii of numerous monadelphous stamens, these 

 with reniform one-celled anthei-s. — Flowers almost always perfect, regular. Calyx 

 5-cleft or parted, persistent, in many genera augmented by an apparent accessory 

 calyx, i. e. a whurl of bractlets, forming an invoiucd. Petals 5, hypogynous, usually 

 withering or deliquescent without fulling ulf. IMstil usually either a ring of ovaries 

 around a projection of the receptacle, from which they fall away singly at maturity, 

 or a 3- 10-celled ovary becoming a capsule in fi'uit : styles united at least at base 

 into one. Ovules single, several, or numerous in the carpels or cells, amphitropous 

 or nearly anatropous. Seeds commonly roundish or reniform, with little or no albu- 

 men, and a curved embryo ; its cutyledons broad and foliaceous, variously crumpled 

 or doubled up, mostly involving tlie radicle. Leaves most commonly palmately 

 ribbed. Peduncles axillary. Flowers in many large and showy. 



A mthor lurgo onlor, IouikI in all iiiirt.4 of the world fxi(iplin<( tlio arctic regions, well rcjao- 

 aentod in Noilli Amciica and in its wusloni or contrul distri(;ts, hut not conspicuoua in t'alil'orniu. 

 The demulcent properties are turned to account only in the mucilage of the root of Marsh Mallow 

 {Althaa officinalis) ; but many are cultivated for ornament, and one, the Cotton-plant, for the, 

 wool which invests its seeds. 



Tribe I. MALVEiE. The column of stamens hearing anthers at the summit. Carpela 

 closely united into a ring around the axis and separating from it more or less at maturity. 



» Styles stigmatic on the inner side : carpels iiulehiscent : ovules solitary, ascending. 



1. Lavatera. nnictlets3 to 6, united at base. Axis of the fruit dilated above and exceeding 



the few carpels. 



2. Malva. Hractlets 3, distinct. Axis broad, shorter than the numerous carpels. 



3. Sidalcea. Bractlets none. Filaments in a double series, those of the outer series united in 5 



clusters. Carpels fewer, covering the axis. 



» ♦ Stigmas capitate : carpels mostly dehiscent at least at the apex. 



4. Malvastrum. Bractlets 1 to 3. Ovule solitary, ascending. 



5. Sphaeralcea. Bractlets 1 to 3. Ovules 2, the lower ascending, the upper pendulous. 



6. Sida. Bractlets 1 or 2, or usually none. Ovules solitary, pendulous or horizontal. 



7. Abutilon. Bractlets none. Ovules 3 or more in each cell. 



TuiBK II. IIIBlSCKi'lil. Column of stamens luiked at the summit and 5-toothed. Carpela 

 united into a few-celled capsule, dehiscing loculicidally. 



8. Hibiscus. Involucel of several distinct bractlets. Capsule mostly 5-celled, many-seeded. 



GossYPiUM HERBACEUM, Linn., the cultivated Cotton-plant, also belongs to this tribe, — the 

 genus characterized by its three ample cordate usually incised bracts, a truncate or shortly 5-cleft 

 calyx, a 3- 5-celled capsule, and long-woolly seeds. In Lower California and on Cerros Island 

 there has been found a native species, 0. Daviusonii, Kellogg (Proc. Calif. Acad. v. 82), shrubby, 

 with small and u.sually entire cordate leaves, the Howers also comparatively small, an inch long, 

 yellow with puri)le base. 



1. LAVATERA, Linn. Thke Mallow. 



Involucel 3-6-cleft. Stamineal column divided above into numerous filaments. 



Styles fdiform, stigmatic on the inner side. Fruit depressed ; the several carpels 



separating from the prominent more or less dilated axis, indehiscent, 1-seeded; seed 



ascending. — Leaves angled or lobed ; flowers axillary or in terminal racemes ; our 



.species stout and shrubby. 



