96 



TTfK INDTAKA WEKT) BOOK. 



hock, cotton plant and okra are familiar or cultivated forms. The 

 rose mallows which grow wild along the borders of marshes and 

 streams produce some of the largest and most handsome of our 

 wild blossoms. The most common one of these is the halberd- 

 leaved rose mallow, 4-8 feet high and having the upper leaves 

 hastate, the large bell-shaped flower pink with a purplish base and 

 the fruit-pod surrounded by the bladder-like inflated calyx. Only 

 a dozen species of the mallow family grow wild in the State, three 

 of which are weeds. 



58. MALVA ROTUNDIFOLIA L. Round-leaved Mallow. Low Mallow. Creep- 

 ing Charley. Cheeses. (P. I. 2.) 



Stem branched at the base and 

 spreading from a deep root, 4-12 

 inches long ; leaves long-stalked, 

 rounded or kidney-form, obscurely 

 5-9-1 obed, the edges scalloped. 

 Flowers clustered in the axils, pale 

 blue, $ inch broad; petals oblong. 

 notched at the end, twice the length 

 of sepals ; ovaries about 15, rounded 

 on the back, arranged in a disk. 

 Seeds brown, kidney-shaped, 1/16 

 inch across. (Fig. 62.) 



Common along roadsides and 

 in dooryards, gardens and waste 

 places in cities and towns. May 

 Nov. Children often eat the 

 Fig. 62. (After Clark.) disk-shaped little fruit bodies, 



calling them "cheeses," whence the following lines: 



"The sitting down when school was o'er 

 Upon the threshold of the door, 

 Picking from mallows, sjK>rt to please. 

 The crumpled seed we call a cheese." 



Like other weeds which flourish best in coolpact or trodden ground 

 this mallow has a long and tapering root. Remedies: pulling or 

 deep cutting with hoe or spud in lawns and yards ; thorough culti- 

 vation in gardens and fields. 



51). SIDA SPINOSA L. Prickly Sida. Thistle Mallow. (A. I. 2.) 



Erect, much branched, soft downy, 8-20 inches high ; leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate or oblong, scalloped, 1-2 inches long, the stems of the larger 

 ones with a spine-like tubercle at the base. Flowers small, lemon-yellow, 

 short-stemmed, axillary. Pods 5, combined into an ovate fruit, each split- 

 ting at the top into two beaks. Seeds dark brown, triangular, smooth, 

 not shining. 1/lli inch long. (Fig. (!,'>.) 



