s 1 AMI LI All OARDEX FlOU'EliS. 



ABUTILON. From the Greek for mulberry-tree, which the larger 

 kinds of abutilou resemble ; or from the Arabic for mallow. N.O., Malvaie<c. 

 Lixxjetan: 16, Monoddphla ; 8, Folt/andria.—The malvaceous order com- 

 prises herbs, shrubs, and trees, with regiilar showy flowers, usually with five 

 divisions, but sometimes with three or four. The petals are spii'ally twisted 

 before the flowers open, and they are united by their claws to the base of 

 the tube formed by the union of the filaments, so that the corolla falls off 

 entire. The stamens are curiously united by their filaments into a tube, 

 within which is the style. The ovary consists of numerous cai-pels arranged 

 in a whorl. The fruit is a cluster of seed-vessels arranged around a central 

 axis. In this order we find the mallow, hibiscus, sida, the cotton-plant, or 

 gossypium, and the abutilon. /->■ ^^^■ 



HYPERICUM, possibly from Greek hifpcr, over, and creike, heath 

 a plant growing on a heath. The name is certainly from the Yperikoii of 

 Dioscorides and Hippocrates, who were acquainted with Hype r id' m crispnm 

 and a. empetr'i folium^ and advised theii' employment in complaints of the 

 chest. N.O., MypertcacfC. Linn.ean : 18, Poli/advlphia ; 2, Pohjandrla. — ■ 

 The plants of this order are herbs, shrubs, and trees, the best known amongst 

 them being the tutsan of the hedgerows. Leaves simple, entire, opposite, 

 full of pellucid and black dots ; flowers hermaphrodite, regular ; calyx 

 usually of five pieces, the two outer smaller than the three inner ; corolla of 

 five petals ; stamens indefinite, united at their base into bundles ; ovary 

 free, globular; fruit a dry or fleshy capsule of many valves; seeds small, 

 tapering, with an inferior radicle. A small and unimportant order, com- 

 prising St. John's wort, pamassia, elodea, and the gum gutta, or American 

 gamboge. p. 49. 



MALOPE, from malos, soft, in allusion to the texture of the leaves 

 and the emollient properties of the plants. N.O., Jlalfacere. 'Li'syjEA^ : 

 16, Monadclphia ; 8, Fohjuiidna'. — The mallows are endogenous plants, com- 

 prising herbs, shrubs, and trees, with simple leaves which are usually lobed, 

 and with showy flowers which, with very few exceptions, have five sepals 

 and five petals. The recognition of mallow worts by the beginner in botany 

 is extremely easy, as the family likeness is preserved all through in a con- 

 spicuous way. The manner in which the fiowers are spirally twisted before 

 they expand is peculiar, and the union of tlie filaments of the stamens into 

 a tube which sheathes the style is equally peculiar and characteristic. The 

 ovary consists of numerous carpels arranged in a whorl around a central axis ; 

 they are one-celled ; the seeds are somewhat three-sided, and are sometimes 

 covered wdth a cottony dovni. In this family we find the mallow, the 

 hibiscus, the hollyhock, the cotton plant, the sida, and the abutilou, all 

 more or less "familiar" flowers. The silk cotton tree {Bmnbax') is closelv 

 related to the mallows, although properly placed in a separate order. It is 

 from its seed-vessels that the soft flbre is derived, precisely as in the common 

 cotton (Gosfiifphuii), which is strictly malvaceous. ' p^ ,33_ 



IiABITIlNUM, ^^iiom. labor, denoting what belongs to the ho/o- of 

 Iab<jur, and which may allude to its closing its leaflets together at ni«-ht, and 

 expanding them by day." This explanation by Dr. Prior is so unacceptable 

 that we prefer Professor Skeat's declaration that the devivati^.n is unknown. 

 Cytlsiis laburnum belongs to N.O. FahnffC, or LafKiJiinifrra. Linxjian • 17 

 Diadilphia ; 4, Decaifdria.—viee summary under " Sweet Pea." n 57' 



