18 
MALYACE2E. 
ovules 1 or few in a cell ; style usually branched at the top ; stigmas 
capitate or decurrent on the style-branches, carpels dry, usually 
separating from each other and the axis when ripe. Seeds reniform ; 
albumen mostly scanty. — Herbs or shrubs or trees ; leaves alternate, 
stipulate, usually broad, entire or lobed ; flowers showy, solitary, or 
fascicled in the axils of the leaves. Distrib. Cosmopolitan. Species 
700. 
Staminal column bearing stalked anthers at the top. 
Epicalyx 3-cleft; ovule 1, erect; stigma decurrent . . * Malva. 
Epicalyx 3 -cleft ; ovule 1 , erect ; stigma capitate . . . 1 . Malvastrum. 
Epicalyx 0 ; ovule 1, pendulous ; stigma capitate ... 2. Sida. 
Epicalyx 0 ; ovules many ; stigma capitate 3. Abutilon. 
Staminal column merely toothed at the top. 
Style-branches distinct. 
Carpels 5 ; ovules solitary. 
Flowers aggregated in heads with a common 
involucre * Malachra. 
No involucre ; carpels muricated on back . ... 4. TJrena. 
No involucre ; carpels only hairy on back .... 5. Pavonia. 
Carpels many ; ovules several 6. Hibiscus. 
Style-branches united. 
Seeds pilose only 7. Thespesia. 
Seeds wrapped in thick cotton * Gossypium. 
# Malva sylvestris , L., the common European Mallow, is established 
in Mauritius at Cannonier point. It is a much-branched biennial, with 
palmately lobed reniform leaves, copious large purple flowers, calyx 
subtended by 3 leafy bracteoles, 10 rugose awnless uniserial gla- 
brous 1-seeded carpels and styles stigmatic for some distance down 
the inner side. Mauve de France. 
1. MALVASTRUM, A. Gray. 
Bracteoles 3, linear, minute. Calyx 5-fid ; teeth deltoid. Staminal 
column without any barren teeth. Ovary 5-10-celled ; ovules solitary, 
erect ; style filiform, with a capitate stigma. Carpels uniserial, separa- 
ting when ripe from the axis, small, hard ; apex muticous or beaked. — 
Herbs or undershrubs, with petioled entire or cut leaves and flowers 
often large and showy. Distrib. Species 60, mostly Cape and 
American, 2 widely-spread tropical weeds. 
1. M. tricuspidatum, A. Gray, PI. Fendl. 16. An erect 
branching herb, with copious adpressed bristly hairs. Leaves distant, 
petioled, ovate-rhomboid, toothed, both sides bristly ; base deltoid, 
entire. Elowers short-peduncled, fascicled in the axils of the leaves. 
Corolla yellow, \ in. long. Calyx-teeth deltoid, bristly on the back and 
edge. Carpels 10, reniform, with an awn at the tip and centre, and 
many bristles between. Malva borbonica, Willd. ; DC. Prod. i. 430. 
Sida carpinoides, DC. Prod. i. 461. 
Mauritius, roadsides at Port Louis, etc. Flat Island, Horne ! Rodriguez, 
abundant all over the island, Balfour. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. Mauve 
sauvage , Herbe a balais. 
