114 THE LADIES' FLOWER-GARDEN 
GENUS II." 
ALTH^A, Cav. THE MARSH MALLOW. 
Lin. St/si. MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 
Generic CniiucTEH. — Calyx five-cloft, girded by .1 six or nine-cleft involucre. Carpels capsular, 1-secded, disposed into an orliicular head. 
(G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The mucilage in these plants is still more abundant than in the mallow ; and it is used 
with success in several pulmonary complaints. Hence, the word Althaea, which is derived from altheo, to cure. 
There are many species, but those best known in Britain are the Marshmallow and the Hollyhock. 
1.— ALTH^A OFFICINALIS, Lin. THE MARSH MALLOW. 
5-lobed. Peduncles axillary^ many-flowered, much shorter than the 
leaves. (G. Don.) 
Engraving. — Eng. Bot. t. 147 i 2d ed. t. 981. 
Specific Charicter. — Leaves clothed with soft white tomentum 
on both surfaces, cordate or ovate, toothed, undivided or somewhat 
Description, &c. — This plant is a native of the salt marshes on the sea-coast in Britain, and many other 
parts of Europe. The roots are long and thick, and they abound in mucilage, which is used in medicine. In 
France a lozenge is made of it, called Pftte de Guimauve. The flowers are very pretty, and they are produced 
from July to September, but the plant is seldom grown in gardens. 
2.— ALTHiEA ROSEA, Cav. THE HOLLYHOCK. 
Synonyme. — Alcea rosea, Lin. 
Engravings. — Bot. Mag. t. 3198 ; and o\a fig. 1 in Plate 28. 
Specific Character. — Stem straight, hairy. Leaves cordate, with 
five or seven angles, crenated, rough ; flowers axillary, sessile, some- 
what spiked at top ; petals a little crenated, with villous claws. 
(G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The common Hollyhock is, as is well known, a very showy flower, which varies very 
much from seed, so as to produce a fine and varied effect in a garden. Hollyhocks look particularly well near an 
old baronial mansion, with architectural terraces ; or in the borders on each side of a broad gravel walk. In good 
soil hollyhocks will grow from ten to fifteen feet high, producing a great quantity of large showy flowers. The 
species is a native of China, whence it was introduced in 1753, and it is quite hardy in British gardens. It is a 
biennial, and the usual mode of treating it is to sow the seeds in April, and the following September to prepare 
pits in the borders about four feet apart and two feet deep, putting two or three shovel-fulls of strong stable 
manure in each pit. The plants should then be carefully taken up and placed in the pits, which should be filled up 
with vegetable mould or some other light rich soil so as not either to injure or bend the tap root, or to rub off the 
slender fibrous roots springing from the tap root, which are necessary to supply nourishment to the plant. Thus 
treated, on a gravelly subsoil, hollyhocks have been grown from seventeen to twenty feet high. In clayey soils 
the pit may be dug six inches deeper, and the additional depth filled in with brickbats and lime rubbish. It may 
be then filled in with vegetable mould, and the plants planted, laying some manure on the surface, and watering 
them occasionally in dry weather. With this treatment the plants will attain a large size, and the flowers a 
brilliant colour. The original plants of hollyhock had red flowers, and hence tho species received the name of 
Althcea roaea ; but now hollyhocks are grown with white, scarlet, purple, buff, or yellow flowers, with a variety 
