WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK [65 



(Malva alcca Linnaeus). Descriptions of these maybe found in the 

 current floras or manuals of botany of the northeastern states. 



Swamp Rose Mallow; Mallow Rose 

 Hibiscus moscheutos Linnaeus 



Plate 129 



Stems tall and canelike from a perennial root, 3 to 6 feet high. Leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate or ovate, blunt or rounded and often slightly heart- 

 shaped at the base, pointed or blunt at the apex, 3 to 5 inches long, the lower 

 ones sometimes lobed, all conspicuously palmately veined, toothed, densely 

 hairy with white stellate hairs beneath, green and finely hairy or nearly 

 smooth above. Flowers 4 to 7 inches broad, pink, clustered at the top of 

 the plant; calyx lobes five, ovate, pointed, subtended by several narrow 

 bractlets; petals five, broadly obovate; stamens numerous in a column 

 surrounding the style which is five-cleft at the summit with five stigmas. 

 Fruit a five-chambered pod about 1 inch long, blunt or slightly pointed. 



In marshes along the ocean or near the coast from eastern Massachusetts 

 to Florida and in saline situations and marshy lake shores inland, especially 

 throughout the Great Lakes region. Flowering in August and September. 



The Crimson-eye Rose Mallow (Hibiscus oculiroseus Britton) 



is similar, but the flower is white with a dark-crimson center and the fruit 



pod is long pointed. It is found on Long Island, Staten Island and in New 



Jersey. 



Saint John's-wort Family 



Hypericaceae 

 A family containing about sixteen species in New York State, mostly 

 herbs, some of them shrubs, chiefly with opposite leaves and yellow or 

 rarely reddish flowers in terminal clusters. In many of them the foliage 

 is pellucid-punctate or dotted. Flowers regular and perfect. Sepals 

 four or five. Petals four or five. Stamens numerous or few, often in 

 three or five sets. 



