MALVACEAE. 135 



7. Twigs gray or greenish. T. platyphyllos. 

 Twigs yellow. T. platyphyllos aurea. 

 Twigs red. T. platyphyllos rubra. 



8. Leaves abruptly acuminate : fruit ribbed. T. tomentosa. 

 Leaves gradually pointed, usually very oblique : fruit 



not ribbed. T. heterophylla. 



Family MALVACEAE. Mallow Family. 

 A moderate-sized family, chiefly of herbaceous plants, note- 

 worthy as .including the most important fiber plant of the world, 

 cotton : many species are cultivated for their flowers, and the 

 following finds too-common use as an incongruous component of 

 shrubberies. 



HIBISCUS. Rose of Sharon. Rose Mallow. 

 Deciduous shrubs with pale wood with minute ducts more 

 crowded in spring, and rather fine medullary rays connected 

 by narrow tangential bands of wood-parenchyma; moderate 

 somewhat angled twigs ; rather large continuous pale pith ; 

 alternate somewhat raised transversely elliptical small leaf-scars 

 with about 4 bundle-traces in an ellipse ; small round stipule- 

 scars ; petioled palmately nerved and commonly lobed moderate 

 leaves ; narrow-bracted large perfect polypetalous axillary 

 flowers with many monadelphous stamens; ovoid capsules; and 

 curved-ciliate flat seeds. 

 Leaves cuneate, acutely lobed and crenately toothed. H. syriacus. 



Family DILLENIACEAE. 



A small unimportant family; the following used as rapid 

 climbers, one of them, Actinidia polygam-a, a- curiosity because 

 of its attractiveness for cats. 



ACTINIDIA. 



Woody deciduous twiners with soft brownish wood with 

 both large and small diffused ducts and fine medullary rays ; 

 rounded often chambered or colored pith ; alternate shield- 

 shaped raised leaf-scars with a U-shaped bundle-trace; small 

 buds concealed in the swollen nodes ; round to oblong petioled 



