M A L V A mofchata.
M ujk M allow .
MONADELPHIA Polyandria.
Gen. Char. Cal. double ; the outermoft of 3 leaves.
Capfules numerous, circularly arranged. Seeds
folitary.
S p e c . C h a r . Radical leaves kidney-fhaped, c u t ; thole
on the Item in five deep pinnatifid and finely
divided fegments. Calyx hairy.
Sy n . Malva mofchata. Linn. Sp. P i. 97.1- Sm. FI.
Brit. 741 . Had/. 308. With. 613. Hull. 135.
Relh. 266. Sibth. 216. Abbot. 151. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 4. t. 30.
Alcea tenuifolia crifpa. D ill, in Rail Syn. 233.
A. vulgaris. Raii Syn. 25 2, the fynonyms all wrong.
r p
X H E graffy borders of fields and little-frequented roads in
gravelly countries are enlivened with the bloffoms of the beautiful
Mulk Mallow during the hot months of Summer and
Autumn, and at the fame time its herbage vyill be found to
diffufe a ftrong mufky odour, which is hardly to be perceived
in cold or damp weather.
The root is perennial, woody and tough. Stems about two
feet high, but little branched, round, rough with rigid hairs.
Radical leaves on long footflalks, kidney-fhaped, 3-lobed, ere-
nate, foon withering away; ftem-leaves on fhorter flalks, and
divided to the bafe into 5 fegments,"which are deeply pinnatifid
and cut. Flowers on long axillary Ample flalks, large, rofe-
coloured. Ends of the petals abruptly jagged. Calyx hairy,
or almoft briftly, paler than the leaves.
Ray miftook this for the Alcea vulgaris of J. Bauhin, (Malva
Alcea Linn.), and inferted it by that name in his Synopfis.
Dillenius in his edition mentions it by its right fynonym,
A. tenuifolia crifpa of the fame author, and copies Bauhin’s
doubts refpefting its being really diftindt from the other. Thus
Hudfon introduced both into his Flora, but erroneoufly; for
the plants of Ray and Dillenius are both one, and the true
M. Alcea, as diftindt a fpecies as can be, has never been found in
England.