948 ALTHZEA. [CLASS XVI. ORDER III. 
sessile. Stipules ovate lanceolate, hispid. Inflorescence solitary 
flowers, on long slender rough peduncles from the axis of the upper 
leaves. Jnvolucre of nine narrow linear lanceolate hispid spreading 
pieces. Calyx of five ovate lanceolate very rough spreading pieces, 
often tinged with purple. Corolla of five obcordate spreading petals, 
of a lilac or deep rose colour, united at the base by their claws. 
Fruit of numerous carpels, united round a common axis. 
Habitat.—Fields and waste places; rare. A field near Cobham.— 
Mr. J. Rayer. Between Cobham and Cuxton.—Pref. Henslow. 
Annual; flowering in June and J uly. 
This species, though found only in the above stations in England, 
and there probably introduced and become naturalized, is not uncom- 
mon in various parts of the Continent, especially in corn fields. 
The natural order Malvacee is one of considerable interest, from 
its very valuable and important productions, and many of the tribes 
are handsome ornamental plants; as the Althea, or Holly-hock, which 
now, much cultivated, furnishes innumerable varieties of its handsome 
flowers to the careful cultivator. The Hibiscus is a beautiful orna- 
mental plant, and many of the varieties, as the H. arboreus, cannabinus, 
and mutabilis, have such tough pliant stems, as to be manufactured 
into ropes, whips, &e ; and the leaves of the two former are used as 
food, as well as those of H. esculentus, whose fruit is much esteemedin 
the Levant. Several species are highly aromatic, others furnish dyes; 
while the H. manihot abounds in a mucilaginous substance, used 
asasizein Japan. The bark of the Pariti, of Malabar, (H. tiliaceus ), 
is spun into cords, and woven into cloth, matting, &c.; and Forster 
states that when the crop of bread fruit fails in New Caledonia, the 
inhabitants use this bark as a substitute. But the most important of 
all the tribes in this order is the Gossypium, or cotton plant, the pods 
of which are filled with seeds, enveloped in a white down, which is 
the cotton of commerce. The G. herbaceum is the common cotton 
plant of the Old World, and the G. Barbadense of the New World. 
There are other species which furnish the same valuable production, 
but these two are the more generally cultivated. The immense 
value of the seed down of these plants is incalculable, when it is con- 
sidered the staple commodity and almost bond of union between 
England and the United States of America; the immense capital 
invested in this article in its growth and manufacture, the vast number 
of people it employs in various ways, from its growth to the com- 
pletion of the great variety of beautiful and invaluable articles into 
which it is manufactured by the ingenuity of man, startles and 
astonishes us that the simple downy covering of the seeds of these 
humble plants should become the instrument of so much wealth, and 
acquire so vast animportance. It is probable that in this article and 
its manufacture in Great Britain alone, there is invested a capital of 
not less than £100,000,000, which gives employment to 1,000,000 of 
