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ROSE MALLOW. 



The Rose Mallow is one of the 

 most strikingly beautiful plants to be 

 found in our range, but it grows, ex- 

 cept very locally, only in slightly 

 brackish marshes or swamps along 

 our Atlantic seaboard. The stout- 

 stemmed plant grows from three to 

 seven feet in height and has very 

 large leaves, from three to eight 

 inches in length. But it is the mag- 

 nificent blossoms that attract our at- 

 tention, — mammoth pink beauties 

 measuring four to eight inches across. 

 The stamens are united into a large 

 column, bearing anthers on the exter- 

 ior surface; the pistil projects 

 through and beyond this column. The newly opened flowers 

 in which the pollen is ripened, are wide spread so that bees 

 may get at the nectar at the base and get pollen on their 

 backs without coming into contact with the yet unripened 

 stigmas; but they carry this pollen to older flowers which 

 are partially folded and in trying to get by the five stigmas 

 that partially block tlie entrance cannot avoid dusting some 

 of the precious grains on the sticky surfaces. 



MARSH MALLOW, the plant from the roots of which 

 the mucilagenous substance so much used In confectionary 

 is made, belongs to a different genus from the Rose Mallow. 

 It is not common here but has been naturalized from Europe 

 in a few places near the coast. Its pink flowers are much 

 smaller than those of the preceding species, being not more 

 than an inch and a half across. 



The COMMON MALLOW is an abundant weed about 

 old farm houses and along some country roads. Country 

 school children are very familiar with it for it furnishes 

 them with the so-called "cheeses" that they delight in eat- 

 ing. It is a low and spreading plant having rather pretty 

 notched and lobed leaves and small pale blue or white flow- 

 ers, measuring barely half an inch across. 



