MALVACEAE. 45 



The anthers are reniform and one-celled by the confluence of the two 

 lobes at their organic apex, as is shown by Plate 128, Fig. 3. The line of 

 dehiscence is therefore transverse around the convex side, and the anther 

 becomes two-valved. The cell of course exhibits, at an early stage, the 

 septum which divides into two compartments the two loculi of the normal 

 anther, the edge of which terminates in the line of dehiscence (Plate 117, 

 Fig. 5). The grains of pollen are uniformly globose, and their coat mi- 

 nutely hispid ; as in Plate 117, Fig. 6. 



The flowers are hermaphrodite, except in the solitary case of Napasa 

 (Plate 119), which is dioecious. 



The pistils, from five (or very rarely fewer) to twenty or more in number, 

 are more or less united in a ring around a central receptacle. The excep- 

 tion to this in the tribe Malopeae, where the carpels are aggregated without 

 apparent order into a head, is shown by Duchatre to arise from the ring be- 

 coming deeply five-lobed in the course of its development, the reentering 

 angles being carried inwards and upwards so as to produce an apparent 

 capitulum as the ovaries enlarge and accommodate themselves to the space. 



The styles are usually combined at the base, or sometimes nearly to the 

 summit. They correspond in number with the ovaries ; except in Pavonia 

 and its allies, where the branches of the style and the stigmas are twice as 

 many as the ovaries or the cells of the compound ovary, — a character which 

 defines a well-marked natural group, the tribe Urenece. 



In the larger portion of the order, forming the tribe Malvea. as character- 

 ized in the following conspectus, the mature carpels separate from each other 

 with more or less facility, and from the persistent central receptacle. A 

 small portion of the surface of the inner angle or base of the carpel usually 

 remains adherent to the receptacle, or to the base of the calyx. The stig- 

 mas are by all authors said to be capitate throughout the family ; but this is 

 not the case in what I have termed the EumaJvecF, which include all the 

 European, and a considerable portion of the North American representa- 

 tives of this tribe. In these, the styles, or their uncombined portions, are 

 stigmatose throughout their whole length down the inner face, as in Caryo- 

 phyllaceae. 



In the tribe Hibiscefc, the carpels, usually of the same number as the pe- 

 tals, are strictly combined into a several-celled compound ovary, and the 

 fruit is a proper loculicidal capsule, the valves bearing the dissepiments upon 

 their middle, and commonly leaving no central axis. 



The embryo nearly fills the seed, but is involved in a small quantity of 

 mucilaginous, or at length fleshy albumen. It is incurved or inflexed, and 

 the broad and foliaceous cotyledons are more or less plaited together in the 

 middle, and then infolded in the opposite direction, often enwrapping the 

 base of the radicle. 



The plants of the Mallow Family are uniformly destitute of noxious qual- 

 ities, and nearly all of them yield a bland nuicilage. On this account they 

 are largely used as emollients and demulcents. The principal oflicinal plant 

 for this purpose in Europe is the Marsh Mallow (Althaja oflicinalis) : but 



