— 
= 
CLASS XVI. ORDER III. ] ALTHZEA. 947 
high, mostly simple, round, tough, and pliant. Leaves numerous, 
alternate, ovate, or heart-shaped at the base, the lower ones five 
lobed, five ribbed, and plaited, the upper ones three lobed and three 
ribbed, all unequally serrated on the margin. Inflorescence short 
axillary clusters, of from three to six pale pink flowers, often near the 
top of the stem there are one or two, sometimes sessile in the axis of 
the leaves. Jnwvoluere of one piece, cut into about nine narrow acute 
spreading lobes. Calyx of one piece, cut into five broadly acute 
lobes. Corolla of five inversely heart-shaped pale pink petals, with 
broad claws attached to the tube of the stamens, very often the petals 
are obliquely cut on one side. Stamens very numerous. Style 
cylindrical, with about twenty bristle-shaped stigmas. #ruit with as 
many capsules as there are stigmas, arranged round a common axis. 
Capsules kidney-shaped, single seeded. 
Habitat.—Marshy places, mostly near the sea; not unfrequent in 
England and Ireland ; Solway Frith, and near Campsie, Scotland. 
Perennial; flowering from July to September, 
Marsh Mallow has long been in use, and esteemed for the demul- 
cent and emollient properties with which it abounds, and is used 
beneficially in coughs, hoarseness, catarrh, dysentery, and affections 
of the urinary organs. For these affections the root is sliced or 
bruised, and two ounces of it boiled in three pints of water until it is 
reduced to two, and to this is added with advantage an ounce of 
gum Arabic, and it may be sweetened with candied sugar or Spanish 
juice. The leaves are often also used with benefit, when well boiled 
and. bruised and formed into a poultice, in various local inflammatory 
affections, and also in the form of fomentations, to inflamed eyes, &c. 
Marsh Mallow is a very favourite remedy for numerous and various 
affections on the Continent. The pate de qui-mauve is an agreeable 
demulcent, and a very general form among the French for adminis- 
tering this remedy. 
2. A. hirsu'ta, Linn. (Fig. 1099.) Hispid Marsh Mallow. Leaves 
erenated, rough, with spreading hairs, the lower ones kidney-shaped, 
and five lobed, the upper ones palmate, and the uppermost three 
lobed, acute ; peduncles single flowered, larger than the leaves; calyx 
and involucre with taper pointed lobes. 
English Botany, Suppl. t. 2674.—Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. 
vol. i. p. 262.—Lindley, Synopsis, Supp. p. 320. 
foot long, slender, tapering. Stems mostly several, spreading or 
ascending, round, simple, rarely branched, clothed with spreading 
bristly hairs. Leaves not very numerous, distant, alternate, a 
darkish green, paler beneath, and more or less rough, with rough 
spreading hairs, the lower leaves roundish, kidney-shaped, obtusely 
five lobed, and coarsely crenated, the upper ones more deeply lobed 
in a palmate manner, and uppermost ones deeply three lobed, acute 
and serrated, the lower on long slender rough footstalks, the upper 
6H 
