
228 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXVI. 
bract. The leaves of a part of the species are bicolored, green 
above, and white, because densely woolly, beneath. 
One-half, or thirteen, of the northern species of Malvacez 
are pink or red, four are red purple, five yellow, and four white. 
No other polypetalous family has. so large a percentage of the 
flowers red. Both in temperate and tropical regions the blos- 
soms are remarkably large and showy, and are usually yellow or 
red. The chief agents in intercrossing are bees. Malva rotundi- 
folia has white flowers ‘striped with pink, and slender pink stig- 
mas, while 77. moschata has either pink or white blossoms. ' The 
marsh mallow, A/thea officinalis, well known for the use of the 
mucilaginous root in confectionery, has pink flowers an inch 
broad; and A. rosea, the hollyhock of the garden, displays 
white, yellow, rose, crimson, purple, and black hues. A single 
species of Abutilon with yellow flowers has become naturalized 
from Asia. In South America the natural fertilizers of Abutilon 
are humming birds. The genus Hibiscus consists of splendid 
flowers of immense size. In color they ‘are yellow, red, or 
white ; the yellow forms have a purple or blackish eye, and the 
red a dark center... The common cotton, Gossipium herbaceum, 
one of the most valuable of nature’s plant productions, has yellow 
petals, and the floral and extra-floral nectaries attract many 
insects: as well as the ruby-throated humming bird. 
Within the order Parietales the placentz are parietal; “and 
the floral evolution,” says Engler, “has already reached very 
complicated floral types." The Theacez (tea family) is mainly 
of tropical distribution, consisting of shrubs or trees with large 
solitary white flowers. Three species occur in the southern 
states. The handsome white flowers of Stwartia malachodendron 
have purple filaments ; in-S. pentagyna the petals are cream color 
and the sepals redditi outside. To this ay end the tea 
plant and the Camellia. - 
The Hypericaceae have died ulottivat flowers, as 
twenty-two species are yellow and two red. The larger flowers 
of Hypericum are bright or orange yellow, as Z7. ascyrum, while 
the smaller are often pale yellow. |The leaves, sepals, and petals 
of. ce salo pice gta vengo dots. 
H. perfi . Europe, contains no honey, ‘but 

