OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
91 
CHAPTER XV. 
MALVACEAE. 
Essential Character. —Sepals generally 5, rarely 3 — 4. Petals | and ovaria. Anthers one-celled. Carpels numerous, disposed in a 
5, twisted in aestivation. Stamens numerous, hypogynous, and com- I rvliorl around the axis, capsular or baccate.—(G. Don.) 
bined with the claws of the petals into a column, which girds the style | 
Description, &c. —All the plants belonging to the order Malvaceae are remarkable for their showy flowers 
and curious seed-vessels, which resemble little cheeses, and are full of a mucilaginous matter, which is reckoned 
excellent for diseases of the lungs. The name of Malva indicates this quality, as it is derived from a Greek 
word signifying soft, or softening. The flowers have several peculiarities in their botanical construction. The 
petals are curiously twisted together in the bud, and the stamens grow together at the base into a kind of column, 
bearing at their summits kidney-shaped anthers, each containing only one cell, instead of two, as is the case with 
most other plants. The carpels grow together in a circle, so as to form a flat plate with the styles, which are joined 
together at the bottom, rising like a column in the centre. “ Each carpel,” says Dr. Lindley, “ contains one 
seed, with an embryo curiously doubled up and filling the whole cavity ; hence, as the carpels are all of the same 
size, and arranged with the most exact regularity on the same level, if a fruit is cut through, it will present a 
singularly beautiful arrangement of the parts, which look like a vegetable star.” 
GENUS I. 
MALVA, Lin. THE MALLOW. 
Lin. Syst. MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx girded by a 3-leaved involucrum, rarely by a 5—6-leaved one ; leaflets oblong or setaceous. Carpels 
capsular, 1-seeded, verticillate, disposed in an orbicular bead.—(G. Don) 
Description, &c. —The common Mallow of the hedges, and that so abundant in church-yards, are so well 
known, that but little description is necessary for the genus. A malvaceous plant may indeed be always known 
at first sight, and the only difficulty is to know which of the genera it belongs to ; which is not easily 
determined, as the differences between the genera, consisting chiefly in the seed-pods, are not conspicuous to 
unbotanical eyes. All the kinds of annual plants belonging to this order should be sown in warm sunny 
situations, and are killed with the slightest frost; they do not bear transplanting well, except when very young, or 
when a ball of earth is kept round the roots. They have been cultivated in flower-gardens since the time of 
Parkinson (1620), who says, that “for their bravery, they were entertained everywhere, into every country¬ 
womans garden.”— Paradisus, p. 3661. They may all, like the mignonette, be made perennial, or even shrubby, 
by keeping them through the winter in a greenhouse, and propagating them by cuttings. 
1.—MALVA MOSCIIATA, Lin. THE MUSK MALLOW. 
Engravings —Eng. Bot. t. 547 ; 2nd edit., vol. v. t. 980 ; and our 
fig. 6 in Plate 16 of the white variety. 
Variety. — M. m. 2 alba , Hort.; syn. M. m. 2 undulata; Sims 
Bot. Mag. t. 2298, lias white flowers. 
Specific Character. —Lower leaves kidney-shaped, cut, cauline 
ones 5-deeply pinnatifid, jagged segments. Stems and calyxes scabrous 
from simple hairs.— (G. Don) 
Description, &c.— The species has large rose-coloured flowers, and a slender branching stem, with very 
deeply cut leaves. It grows wild in Britain, on the borders of fields, and by the road side in gravelly soil; and 
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