Malvacea A Ithcea. 



81 



beautiful, has beeu quite superseded in gardens by the many 

 splendid double-flowered varieties, ranging in colour from 

 white, yellow, rose, and purple to violet and almost black, 

 with every intermediate shade and tint of these colours. 



There are many other species of inferior merit, but they are 

 seldom seen in cultivation, except in botanical collections. 



5. LAVAT^RA. 



Shrubs, occasionally arborescent, or herbs, with angled or lobed 

 leaves and axillary and solitary or clustered or terminal and race- 

 mose flowers. Very near Malva, but differing in having the three 

 to six lobes of the involucel coherent about half-way up. Car- 

 pels in a flattened whorl, indehiscent. About eighteen species, 

 whereof one is Australian, two are from the Canaries, and the 

 others from the Mediterranean countries. Named in honour 

 of the brothers Lavater, Swiss physicians. 



1. L. arborea. Tree Mallow. 

 A tall biennial species, softly 

 pubescent all over. Leaves large, 

 on long petioles, 5- to 9-lobed, cre- 

 nate. Flowers purple, on short 

 crowded axillary peduncles, about 

 2 inches across. This has a stout 

 stem throwing off numerous lateral 

 branches, and forms a very hand- 

 some small tree. In rich soil in the 

 South of England it often attains a 

 height of 12 or 15 feet. It is occa- 

 sionally met with on our coasts, but 

 is generally considered to be an 

 introduced plant. 



2. L. trimestris (fig. 53). A 

 common annual species, about 3 feet 

 high, with rosy pink or white solitary 

 axillary flowers with a dark centre. 

 A pretty plant where it has plenty of 

 space, flowering freely for a longer 

 period than many annuals. Spain. 



6. MALVA. 



Hairy or glabrous herbs with angular or lobed leaves and 

 axillary flowers. Involucel of 3 distinct free bracts. Carpels 



G 



Fig. 53. Lavatera trimestris. 

 ; (i nat. size.) 



