NAT. ORDER. MALVACEAE. 
155 
Lavatera Crctica. Cretan Lavatera. This has also an annual 
root, white with spreading- beards ; the stem is round, two feet high, 
branched, and the lower branches almost horizontal ; the leaves are 
crenate-toothed, smooth, on long- petioles, gradually narrowed towards 
the top ; the stipulas are ovate-lanceolate, ciliate, bowed at the bottom, 
and then straight ; the flowers are solitary, axillary, on peduncles 
shorter than the petiole ; outer calyx semi-trifid, with keeled segments ; 
inner one larger, with lanceolate segments, curbed at the edge ; the 
corolla is large, spreading, bell-shaped, pale flesh color, with whitish 
lines ; petals broader above, crenate, frequently rolled up, the edges 
of the claws of a deep purple ; the germ very smooth ; the style multi- 
fied ; the stigmas pale flesh-colored, longer than the tube, thirteen to 
eighteen in number ; the fruit hemispherical, convex beneath, covered 
at the top with a circular, concave, smooth lid or peltate umbrella ; 
there are about twenty capsules in a whorl ; these are brown, closed 
all round and not opening, with a longitudinal raised line along the 
back, elegantly marked along the sides with flexuose streaks drawn 
from the circumference to the centre ; the seeds are ferruginous. This 
is a native of the middle states of North America, and flowers from 
July till September. 
There are twenty-eight species of the Lavatera described as be- 
ing useful either medicinally, ornamentally, or for domestic purposes. 
Propagation and Culture. The green-house and frame species 
will thrive well in a mixture of loam and peat, or any light soil, and 
cuttings from ripe wood planted in the same kind of soil under a hand- 
glass will root readily, or they may be raised from seeds, which gene- 
rally ripen in abundance ; they may be planted out against a south 
wall during summer, where many of them will survive the winter, if 
not severe, by being sheltered by a mat in frosty weather. The pe^ 
rennial herbaceous species will grow in any kind of soil, and may 
either be increased by dividing the plants at the roots or by seeds.— 
All the species are hardy, and well adapted for shrubberies. 
