SOME IMPORTANT FAMILIES OF ANGIOSPERMS 307 



322. The Mallow Family. — This is characterized by 

 flowers with five sepals, five petals, and usually many stamens 

 of different lengths which are united by their filaments into 

 a tube that surrounds several pistils whose ovaries are united 

 into a ring or a compound pod. The genus of greatest prac- 

 tical interest is Gossypium, to which the cottons, the most 

 important of fiber plants, belong. Somewhat more than 

 half the world's supply of cotton is raised in the southern 

 United States ; outside the United States, the largest amounts 

 are furnished by India, Egypt, and China. Okra (gumbo) is 

 a close relative of the cotton. Another useful plant of this 

 family is the marshmallow. Among the ornamental culti- 

 vated members are the abutilon, hibiscus, and hollyhock. 

 The common mallow is a familiar weed. 



323. The Violet Family. — Here only the violets will be 

 mentioned. Among them are some of our best-known wild 

 flowers. The violets raised by florists are descended from a 

 wild European species, and the many varieties of pansies 

 have been derived from crosses between two or more other 

 European species.- 



324. The Cactus Family. — The characteristic feature of 

 this family is the thick, fleshy stem, which takes on a variety 

 of forms. In some species, such as the night-blooming cereus, 

 the stem is tall and cylindrical ; in some it is nearly or quite 

 globular ; in others, as in the prickly pears, it is jointed, 

 each division being flat and more or less leaf -like. The leaves 

 of most members of the family are represented only by small 

 scales or spines, or both. Most of them are natives of the 

 drier regions and deserts of the new world. Some of the 

 prickly pears, of American origin, are cultivated for their 

 fruit in Mediterranean countries, where they sometimes go 

 by the name of " Indian fig." 



325. The Parsley Family. — The botanical name of this 

 family ( UmbellifercB) refers to the arrangement of the flowers 

 of nearly all its members in simple or compound umbels. 



