NAT. ORDER. 
Malvacece. 
LAVATEBA TRIMESTRIS. ANNUAL LAVATERA. 
Class XVI. Monadelphia. Order VII. Polyandria. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, five-cleft, girded by a three or five-cleft involu- 
cre. Leaflets, joined, especially to the middle. Carpels, capsular, 
one-seeded, disposed into an orb aroundthe axis, which is various- 
ly dilated above the fruit. 
Spe. Char. Stem,, herbaceous, scabrous. Leaves, smoothish, round- 
ish-cordate ; upper ones lobed. Pedicels, solitary. 
Lavateka is a genus of plants of the herbaceous, shrubby, peren- 
nial kinds. This species has an annual fibrous root, full of thick fibres, 
a foot in length, with innumerable other capillary fibres ; the stem is 
round, rugged, five or six feet high, and very much branched ; the 
leaves are on long petioles, very soft, tomentose, toothed, seven-angled^ 
the angles of the upper one sharper ; the stipules are lanceolate, cilate, 
bowing at the bottom, and then erect ; the Jlowers are axillary, about 
four together, and placed on upright peduncles ; the outer calyx is 
cup-shaped, with ovate segments ; the inner one is a little longer, five- 
cornered above, with lanceolate segments ; the corolla is twice the 
length of the calyx, pale blue, with oblong emarginate petals ; the 
germ is orbicular-flatted and ten-grooved ; the stigmas are ten in num- 
ber ; the fruit is smooth, within the calyx ; the capsides are ten, 
round a column terminated by a hemisphere with a very small point 
at the top, disappearing when the fruit is ripe, and leaving a hole in 
the middle of the capsules, which then turn black. It is a native of 
the island of Candia, or Crete, and flowers in July. It sometimes 
possesses red, white, or purple flowers. 
Vol.. hi.— 154. 
