2953.
MALVA verticillata.
W h o r le d M a llo w .
MO NADELPHIJ Polyandria.
Gen. Char. C a ly x double ; outer [^mostly]] 3-Ieaved, inner trifid. C a r p e ls circularly arranged. S e e d solitary.
Spec. Char. Stem erect. Leaves 5-Iobed, obtuse ; basal sinus wide. Flowers fasciculate, unequally stalked. Corolla but little longer than the calyx. Calyx hairy; inner longer than the outer, with triangular segments; at length somewhat inflated,
closing over the fruit. Fruit deeply sulcate ; carpels
with strongly ribbed sides and rounded edges.
Syn. Malva verticillata. L in n . S p . P I . 970. W i ll d .
v . 3 . 788. D e C . P r o d . v . 1.433. C a v a n . D is s .
v . 1. 70. t. 2 b . f . 3 . J a c q . H o r t. V in d . t. 40.
H o o k e r L o n d . J o u r n . B o t. v . 6. 257. B a b . M a n .
B r i t. B o t. e d . 2. 58.
E know not by what accident this Mallow, regarded as
a native of China, and not recorded as even naturalized in any
country of Europe, has established itself at Llanelly in Caer-
marthenshire: there however it grows in corn-land, varying
in different years in abundance according to the nature of the
crop. It was first observed in 1843, in three contiguous fields,
by Mr. James Motley, to whom we owe the specimens from
which our figure was drawn, assisted for the very perishable
flowers by garden plants raised from seeds from the same
souRrcoeo.t annual, fusiform, with long fibres. Stem erect (except
in very rich soil), from a few inches to 3 feet or even more
in height, slender, straight, round, simple, or with merely a few
ascending shoots from the lower part only; its surface often rugose.
Leaves on long spreading stalks, pale dull green, with
five obtuse crenate lobes, obsolete in the lower leaves, which