_Herbs or shrubs, with alternate stipulate leaves and regular flowers, the calyx valvate and the corolla convolute in the bud, numerous stamens monadelphous in a column, and united at base with the short claws of the petals, 1-celled anthers, and kidney-shaped seeds._--Sepals 5, united at base, persistent, often involucellate with a whorl of bractlets forming a sort of exterior calyx. Petals 5. Anthers kidney-shaped, opening along the top. Pistils several, the ovaries united in a ring or forming a several-celled pod. Seeds with little albumen; embryo curved, the leafy cotyledons variously doubled up.--Mucilaginous, innocent plants, with tough bark and palmately-veined leaves. Flower-stalks with a joint, axillary. Tribe I. MALVEÆ. Columns of stamens anther-bearing at the top. Ovaries and carpels 5--20 or more, closely united in a ring around a central axis, from which they separate after ripening. [*] Stigmas occupying the inner face of the styles; carpels 1-seeded, falling away separately. 1. Althæa. Involucel of 6 to 9 bractlets. 2. Malva. Involucel of 3 bractlets. Petals obcordate. Carpels rounded, beakless. 3. Callirrhoe. Involucel of 1--3 bractlets or none. Petals truncate. Carpels beaked. 4. Napæa. Involucel none. Flowers diœcious. Stamens few (15--20). Carpels beakless. [*][*] Stigmas terminal, capitate; carpels 1--few-seeded, usually dehiscent. 5. Malvastrum. Involucel of 3 bractlets or none. Seed solitary, filling the cell, ascending. 6. Sida. Involucel none. Seed solitary in the cells, pendulous. 7. Sphæralcea. Bractlets 3. Seeds 2 or 3 in each cell. 8. Abutilon. Involucel none. Seeds 3--9 in each cell. 9. Modiola. Bractlets 3. Seeds 2 in each cell, with a transverse partition between them. Tribe II. HIBISCEÆ. Column of stamens anther-bearing for a considerable part of its length, naked and 5-toothed at the very apex. Pod mostly 5-celled, loculicidal, leaving scarcely any axis in the centre after opening. 10. Kosteletzkya. Involucel of several bractlets. Pod 5-celled, 5-seeded. 11. Hibiscus. Involucel of many bractlets. Pod 5-celled, many-seeded. 1. ALTHÆ̀A, L. MARSH-MALLOW. Calyx surrounded by a 6--9-cleft involucel. Otherwise as in Malva. (Old Greek and Latin name, from ἄλθω, _to cure_, in allusion to its healing properties.) A. OFFICINÀLIS, L. (MARSH-MALLOW.) Stem erect, 2--4° high; leaves ovate or slightly heart-shaped, toothed, sometimes 3-lobed, velvety-downy; peduncles axillary, many-flowered; flowers pale rose-color.--Salt marshes, coast of N. Eng. and N. Y. Aug., Sept.--Perennial root thick, abounding in mucilage, the bases of the _Pâtes de Guimauve_. (Nat. from Eu.) 2. MÁLVA, L. MALLOW.