217 
NUTTALLIA GRANDIFLORA. 
(LAKGE-FLOWERED NUTTALLIA.) 
ORDER. 
POLYANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
MALVACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx simple, (occasionally double, or even three-leaved,) five-lobed. Capsules 
for the most part one-seeded, collected together in rings round the receptacle. 
Specific Character. — Plant, an herbaceous perennial, growing from one to two feet high. Stems much 
branched, half-erect, roundish. Leaves petiolate, digitate ; lobes occasionally deeply toothed, with 
ovate, amplexicaul bracteas at their base. Calyx five-parted, hairy, with two or three smaller linear 
bracts. Corolla expansive, of five rich, purplish-crimson, emarginate petals. 
It is a singular fact, but one which philosophers would probably experience no 
difficulty in accounting for, that mankind invariably feel a more lively and perma- 
nent interest in those objects, for the attainment and preservation of which they 
expend most money and attention. So notoriously is this the case with the lovers 
of plants, that however truly valuable any plant that is introduced to this country 
may be, as soon as it is found to be of easy cultivation, and may be procured for a 
small sum, it loses all its interest and value with the principal patrons of floricul- 
ture, and soon vanishes from their collections. 
Were real beauty — as it ought to be — the criterion of value in flowers, many a 
lovely plant would be saved from oblivion, and others which are new would need 
only to be seen to recommend themselves to general notice. But it is almost 
sufficient to check the desire of any of the leading plant cultivators for possessing 
any plant, to inform them that it is perfectly hardy, and does not require the 
slightest trouble in its cultivation and management. 
There is, however, a numerous— and by far the most numerous — class of 
floriculturists, to whom such characters as those above-mentioned are the greatest 
recommendations a plant can possess, provided always that it has a tolerable share 
of beauty, and to these we refer the extremely beautiful hardy herbaceous plant 
VOL. V. NO. LVIII. F F 
CLASS. 
MONADELPHIA. 
