26 CLASS-BOOK OF BOTANY. 
are. In the flowers note that the petals are often fringed (fimbriate) on 
their outer margins, the elongated ovary with 2 styles and having the 
placenta continuous from the base to the apex producing what is called 
free-central placentation. (The Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus, has. 
the same general characters, but the cymes are all crowded together at 
the ends of the branches.) +7 
Spurrey (Spergula arvensis).—A common weed in many parts of New 
Yealand. It has rather an offensive smell when bruised, and is covered 
with sticky (glandular) hairs. You will notice that in several points it 
is different from the preceding forms. Its linear leaves appear to be 
whorled, several springing from each of the tumid nodes, and they have 
minute stipule-like scales at their base. The inflorescence in the lower: 
part of the plant is a dichotomous cyme, but towards the extremities of 
the branches it becomes 1-sided. The ovary has 5 styles, but the capsule 
dehisces by 5 teeth only, not by double the number of the styles as in 
the preceding forms. + ee 
Besides the above there are numerous other allied plants which it is. 
advisable to examine. These include many garden and wild plants, such. 
as Saponaria, Campions (species of Lychmis), Catchfly (Szlene), &e. All 
will be found to have numerous points of difference, but to agree in their 
general habit, entire opposite leaves springing from tumid nodes, their 
cymose inflorescence, parts of the flower (sepals, petals, and stamens) in. 
fives, their capsular fruit dehiscing by teeth, having basal or free-central. 
placentation, and their albuminous seeds with curved embryo. 
5. Matnow (Malva sp.). 
Various introduced species of Mallows are to be found wild 
in different parts of New Zealand, and these, while differing in 
details, such as their habit and form of leaves, agree very 
closely in general features. Hybrids of the Musk Mallow 
(Malva moschata) and the Tree Mallow (Lavatera arborea), 
which are to be found in many gardens, are also very similar. 
You will find the following characters common to all these 
plants. The leaves are simple, alternate, and furnished with 
somewhat, long petioles, at the base of which are a pair of 
small stipules. However different the general form of the 
leaves may be in the different species, they all agree in having 
five ribs springing from the top of the petiole, the lowest rib 
on each side often having a subsidiary one branching from it so: 
as to make the leaf appear 7-ribbed. In M. rotundifolia the 
leaf is reniform with a somewhat crenate margin, but in most 
of the other species it is 5-7-palmately-lobed, or palmatifid 
(Pl. IT., fig. 6), this term being applied to all such leaves in which 
the lobes are spread out from the summit of the petiole. If you 
examine the surface of a leaf or other part of the plant with a 
good lens, you will find that it is more or less covered with 
star-shaped (stellate*) hairs. Note the arrangement of the 
flowers in axillary fascicles; under each flower is an outer 
whorl, or epi-calyx, of 3 bracts, which is usually persistent. 
The calyx is always gamosepalous, 5-lobed and inferior ; and 
notice that in the buds the lobes are valvate. The 5 petals 
* Lat. stella, a star: 
