THE MALLOW TRIBE. 91 



of the Mallow tribe in talking of its mucilage. It has 

 many other and far more important good qualities. 

 In beauty it yields to no part of the vegetable world ; 

 many of the plants called Hibiscus, are trees or shrubs 

 or herbs bearing flowers of the largest size, the most 

 exquisite proportions and the most striking colours ; 

 the common Bladder ketmia for example. One of 

 them, conspicuous for the brilliant crimson of its 

 flowers (Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis), is a vegetable shoe- 

 black ; the petals communicate a black stain to any 

 thing they touch, and the Chinese actually black their 

 shoes with them. Many varieties of it are common 

 in our hot-houses, so that you may try the experiment 

 on your own shoes if you like. 



Cordage is also produced by several species, from 

 the touofh veo^etable fibres of their stem. But it is 

 the hairy clothing of the seeds of different plants 

 belonging to a genus that Botanists call Gossypium, 

 which is of such pre-eminent importance as to claim 

 for the Mallow tribe a rank in the veo^etable kinodom 

 second only to Corn. That hairy substance is Cotton, 

 which for no conceivable purpose except to yield man 

 the means of clothing himself, is formed in prodi- 

 gious abundance upon the back of the seeds of the 

 Cotton plants, whence it is torn by machinery and 

 afterwards cleaned and spun into thread. Faithless 

 travellers and credulous readers for a long time 

 caused the existence of the Barometz, or Scythian 

 Lamb, to be believed in, a creature said to be half 

 animal half plant ; the Cotton plant has far stronger 

 claims to the name of a vegetable sheep. 



