MALLOW FAMILY 



The great invading root arrests the attention of 

 the gardener, but it is the seed-vessels that attract 

 the children and give to the plant its country names 

 of Cheese Flower and Buttonweed. When the five- 

 cleft calyx encloses a circle of half-grown carpels 

 making a tiny mass that looks not unUke a miniature 

 cheese, country children fold back the pointed divi- 

 sions of the protecting calyx and, plucking the little 

 seed-vessels, eat them with satisfaction, for they are 

 pleasantly mucilaginous. In the children's vocabulary 

 they are "cheeses." Such cheeses as escape capture 

 become brown, hardened, and finally break up into 

 fifteen or more separate carpels. 



MUSKMALLOW 



Mdlva moschdta 



One of the prettiest of our garden escapes, sometimes 

 cultivated but oftener found by the roadside. Perennial. 



Stem. — One to two feet high, hairy. 



Leaves. — Alternate, three to five-parted; divisions once 

 or twice cut into slender lobes, faintly scented with musk. 



Flowers. — Of Hollyhock type, pale rose or white, flat, 

 about two inches across, in terminal and axillary clusters. 



Sepals. — Five, involucre of three bracts. 



Petals. — Five, obcordate, united at the base. 



Stamens. — United in a long column, bearing anthers. 



Pistil. — Many carpels united in a single whorl; styles 

 many. 



Occasionally by the roadside in midsummer we find 

 in full bloom a little colony of one of the prettiest 

 ii8 



