_Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple feather-veined leaves, and no stipules, the regular flowers hypogynous and polyandrous, the sepals and petals both imbricated in æstivation, the stamens more or less united at the base with each other (monadelphous or 3--5-adelphous) and with the base of the petals._--Anthers 2-celled, introrse. Fruit a woody 3--5-celled loculicidal pod. Seeds few, with little or no albumen. Embryo large, with broad cotyledons.--A family with showy flowers, the types of which are the well-known CAMELLIA and the more important TEA PLANT,--represented in this country by the two following genera. 1. STUÁRTIA, L. Sepals 5, rarely 6, ovate or lanceolate. Petals 5, rarely 6, obovate, crenulate. Stamens monadelphous below. Pod 5-celled. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, crustaceous, anatropous, ascending. Embryo straight, nearly as long as the albumen; radicle longer than the cotyledons.--Shrubs with membranaceous deciduous oblong-ovate serrulate leaves, soft-downy beneath, and large short-peduncled flowers solitary in their axils. (Named for _John Stuart_, Marquis of Bute.) 1. S. Virgínica, Cav. Petals 5, white (1´ long); sepals ovate; style 1; stigma 5-toothed; pod globular, blunt; seeds not margined.--Woods, Va., and southward. 2. S. pentágyna, L'Her. Leaves larger, 5--6´ long; sepals acute; petals often 6; styles 5, distinct; pod angled, pointed; seeds wing-margined.--Mountains of Ky., Car., and southward. 2. GORDÒNIA, Ellis. LOBLOLLY BAY. Sepals 5, rounded, concave. Petals 5, obovate. Stamens 5-adelphous, one cluster adhering to the base of each petal. Style 1. Pod ovoid, 5-valved; the valves separating from the persistent axis; cells 2--8-seeded. Seeds pendulous. Embryo straightish, with a short radicle, and thin longitudinally plaited cotyledons.--Shrubs or small trees, with large and showy white flowers on axillary peduncles. (Dedicated by Dr. Garden to his "old master, _Dr. James Gordon_ of Aberdeen," and by Ellis to a London nurseryman of the same name.) 1. G. Lasiánthus, L. (LOBLOLLY BAY.) Leaves coriaceous and persistent, lanceolate-oblong, narrowed at the base, minutely serrate, smooth and shining; pod pointed; seeds winged above.--Swamps near the coast, Va. and southward. May--July.--Petals 1½´ long. ORDER 20. MALVÀCEÆ. (MALLOW FAMILY.)