MONADELPHIA— POLYANDRIA. Lavatera. 249 



Biennial. July — October. 



Root much branched, running deep into the ground. Stem from 

 6 to 10 feet high, upright, strait, thick, scarred; simple be- 

 low ; branching into a leafy head ; the branches besprinkled 

 with fine, deflexed, compound, bristly hairs. Leaves of a grey- 

 ish green, pliant, soft and downy, alternate, on long footstalks; 

 their margin in 7 shallow crenate lobes. Fl. much like those 

 of the common Malva sylvestris, in general appearance, but 

 darker towards the middle, and the woolly calyx very different 

 in structure, as described in the generic character. Caps. 7 or 8, 

 reticulated, smooth. 



This Lavatera, if allowed to scatter its .seeds in a garden, will • 

 spring up for many successive years, and the young'plants will 

 now and then survive one or more mild winters ; but having 

 once blossomed it perishes. 



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