Calyx with a 3-leaved involucel at the base, like an outer calyx. Petals obcordate. Styles numerous, stigmatic down the inner side. Fruit depressed, separating at maturity into as many 1-seeded and indehiscent round kidney-shaped blunt carpels as there are styles. Radicle pointing downward. (An old Latin name, from the Greek name, μαλάχη, having allusion to the emollient leaves.) [*] _Flowers fascicled in the axils._ M. ROTUNDIFÒLIA, L. (COMMON MALLOW.) _Stems procumbent_ from a deep biennial root; _leaves_ round-heart-shaped, on very long petioles, crenate, _obscurely-lobed_; petals twice the length of the calyx, whitish; carpels pubescent, even.--Waysides and cultivated grounds; common. (Nat. from Eu.) M. SYLVÉSTRIS, L. (HIGH M.) Biennial; _stem erect, branched_ (2--3° high); _leaves sharply 5--7-lobed_; petals thrice the length of the calyx, large, purple and rose-color; carpels wrinkled-veiny.--Waysides. (Adv. from Eu.) M. CRÍSPA, L. (CURLED M.) A _tall, erect_ annual, with round and angled toothed and _crisped leaves_, and small _sessile flowers_ crowded in the axils.--Sparingly escaped from old gardens. (Adv. from Eu.) [*][*] _Flowers only in the upper axils, somewhat racemose or paniculate._ M. MOSCHÀTA, L. (MUSK M.) A low perennial, with the _stem-leaves 5-parted, and the divisions once or twice parted or cleft_ into linear lobes, faintly musky-scented, the _flowers rose-color_ or white (1½´ in diameter) on short peduncles crowded on the stem and branches, the fruit downy.--Escaped from gardens to waysides. (Adv. from Eu.) M. ÁLCEA, L., with the _stem-leaves only once 5-parted or cleft_, the lobes incised, large flowers like the last, but the fruit smooth, and bractlets of the involucel ovate, has escaped from gardens. (Adv. from Eu.) 3. CALLÍRRHOË, Nutt. Calyx either naked or with a 3-leaved involucel at its base. Petals wedge-shaped and truncate (usually red-purple). Styles, etc., as in Malva. Carpels 10--20, straightish, with a short empty beak, separated within from the 1-seeded cell by a narrow projection, indehiscent or partly 2-valved. Radicle pointing downward. (Name drawn from Greek mythology.) [*] _Involucel 3-leaved._ 1. C. triangulàta, Gray. Hairy-pubescent; stems nearly erect (2° high) from a tuberous root; leaves triangular or halberd-shaped, or the lowest rather heart-shaped, coarsely crenate; the upper incised or 3--5-cleft; flowers panicled, short-pedicelled (purple); involucel as long as the 5-cleft 5-nerved calyx; carpels not rugose.--Dry prairies, Ind. to Minn., and southward. 2. C. involucràta, Gray. Hirsute or hispid, procumbent; leaves rounded, 5--7-parted or -cleft, the segments incisely lobed; peduncles elongated, 1-flowered; calyx 5-parted, the lanceolate 3--5-nerved sepals twice as long as the involucel; petals red or purplish, carpels indehiscent, rugose-reticulated.--Minn. to Tex. [*][*] _Involucel none; calyx 5-parted; carpels strongly rugose._