CLXV.— THE MARSH MALLOW. 
Althcea officinalis Linne. 
HE Malvacece are a Family of some seven hundred species in about thirty-five 
genera, natives of Tropical and Temperate regions, the number of species 
gradually decreasing towards the Poles. They are herbs, shrubs, or occasionally trees 
and all agree in being harmless, and in containing an abundance of mucilaginous 
juice. They also very generally form a tough liber, or inner bark, which in many 
species is of local importance for cordage and similar purposes. The leaves are 
scattered, stipulate, and palmately veined and lobed ; and in this and several other 
characters they recall the Geraniacece. In contrast to the Tiliacece, the flowers are 
generally conspicuous and often very large, and the calyx is persistent in the fruit 
and is generally furnished with an epicalyx or involucre , sometimes an internode 
below the flower. This has been described, like that of the Strawberries and other 
Polentillece, as made up of the stipules of the sepals, but is, perhaps, better explained 
as made up of bracts and bracteoles. While the sepals are united and valvate in 
aestivation, the petals are convolute, each having one edge overlapping the next. 
The androecium consists typically of two whorls of stamens ; but, while the outer 
whorl (alternating with the petals) is usually suppressed, the inner five become, at an 
early stage of development, repeatedly branched both collaterally and coradially, 
each branch terminating in an anther differing from those of the Tiliacece in being 
dimidiate or halved, having, that is, two pollen-sacs which fuse into a single pollen- 
chamber. The five groups of stamens are carried up on a common tubular 
outgrowth from the receptacle which is so united to the bases of the petals as to 
make them appear gamopetalous. The carpels are superior and vary in number, 
being generally united in a ring or whorl, as in Geraniacece, round a more or less 
elongated central axis or carpophore. The placentation is central and the ovules 
anatropous, whilst the fruit is generally dry, and the seeds contain a curved embryo 
surrounded by scanty albumen. 
The genus Althcea, to which the Marsh Mallow belongs, is distinguished by its 
epicalyx consisting of from six to nine united bracteoles. It comprises some fifteen 
species, all natives of the Old World. They are herbaceous, though often perennial 
and sometimes of large size ; have very generally a hairy or downy surface both to 
stems and leaves ; and usually have the latter lobed or divided. 
What is, perhaps, the only truly indigenous British species, Althcea officinalis 
Linn6, is a very beautiful plant, one of the great charms of the banks of the tidal 
ditches of our salt-marshes, where its tall clusters of palest blush-pink blossoms are 
set off by its hoary stems and leaves. It grows two or three feet high and is but 
little branched, its cauline leaves having short petioles and a toothed margin and 
being only sometimes lobed. The soft, velvety pubescence of stellate hairs forms 
a beautiful object under the microscope. The delicate pink blossoms, from one to 
