64 
12. MALVACEJE. 
1. Layateea L. 
1. L. SYLYESTRIS Brot. Malua. 
Greyish and clothed all over with starry pubescence ; st. 
herbaceous diffusely spreading more or less erect ; 1. roundish- 
heartshaped with mostly 5 crenate lobes shallow and rounded 
in the lower, deeper and pointed in the upper 1. ; fl. axillary 
stalked aggregate often ternate, pedic. always erect shorter than 
the petioles ; involucral br. or outer sep. broadly ovate united 
about one-third upwards ; pet. narrow notched or bilobed thrice 
as long as the cal. ; fr. quite smooth covered by the indexed 
sep., valves rounded plain and even at the back, entire or with 
only a few faint obscure plaits or obtuse teeth at the edges ; 
central disk small simple. — Brot. ii. 277, 278 ; Brot. Phyt. 
Lusit. ii. 225. t. 179. f. 2 ; DC. i. 440. Malta Pseudo- Latater a 
WB. ! i. 29, 30. Bourg. ! PI. Can. Exsicc. no. 667. in BH. and 
HH. L. cretica Cav. Diss. 2. 89. t. 32. f. 1 (not Linn. !). — 
Herb. ann. Mad., PS. reg. 1,2; ccc. Roadsides and waste places 
everywhere. April- July. — St. 1-2 ft. long mostly branched 
and spreading, sometimes simple and erect, rarely prostrate. 
Stip. ovate or ovate-lanceolate. Fl. pale rose-purple middle- 
sized ; claw of pet. slightly fringed or ciliate. Carpels some- 
times very faintly reticulate at the back and obsoletelv toothed 
at the edges but mostly quite plain and even and always per- 
fectly smooth as described by Cavanilles, who mistook it for 
L. cretica L. (Jacq. Vindob. i. p. 15. t. 41), which is an alto- 
gether larger stouter much more hirsute pi., with larger thickly 
shaggy fr. and sep., hispid-pubescent or densely strigose carp., 
and sharply lobed leaves. Jacquin’s fig. above quoted well 
agrees with the original Linnsean type of L. cretica L. in Herb. 
Linn. : but neither one nor the other affords any information as 
to the carpels, which however by numerous specimens in I III. 
are closely and thickly hirsute. — L. syltestris m general aspect 
much resembles the common English Malta sylvestris L. ; but 
it is at once distinguished by the 3 bracts being united at the 
base into the monophyllous outer cal. of a Lavatera. 
Latatera arborea L. (the Tree Mallow) occurs in 2 or 3 places 
(Porto da Cruz in Madeira, and in Porto Santo) about cottages 
and in gardens near the sea ; but it has no claim to a place in 
the Flora. 
2. Halva L. 
1. M. pabvtflora L. Malta. 
More or less starry-pubescent but often nearly smooth and 
shining; st. spreading prostrate or ascending rarely upright; 
L subreniform or broadly roundish-heartshaped with 5-7 very 
shallow and obtuse or rounded crenate lobes ; stip. ovate ; 
