MALVACEAE 103 



' round cordate very large palmately nerved for a time stellate- 

 pubescent leaves with about 5 obovate acuminate lobes; small 

 greenish polygamous panicled flowers; and large capsules 

 with at length leaf-like carpels bearing large round seeds on 

 their margins. 

 Twigs stout, green: leaves long-petioled. S. platanifolia. 



Family MALVACEAE. Mallow Family. 

 A moderate-sized family, chiefly of herbaceous plants, 

 noteworthy 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 cap- 

 sules; 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 polygama, 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 



