Order XXII
FRANKENIACEE.
Distinguished from Caryophylleæ by the fruit not having a central separate placenta, but bearing the seeds on the inner margin of the valves. The species are natives of arid situations in Europe, Africa, and South America. They have not much beauty, and no known medical properties. Besides the genus here recorded, there are two others mentioned by M. Decandolle. 835 Frankénia W.
ORDER XXIII.
MALVACEÆ.
Before this order was dismembered of Bombaceæ and Byttneriaceæ, it contained most of the grandest flowers in nature. Even now, the splendour of the various species of Málva, Málva, Althæ'a, to which the hollyhock belongs , and Hibiscus, renders it one of the most remarkable groups of plants. With the exception of the numerous genus Sída, nearly all Malvaceæ are objects worthy of the gardener's care, particularly those which are hardy. In stoves or greenhouse, the softness of their branches and leaves render them peculiarly liable to the attacks of the red spider, mealy bug, and scale, from which few collections are free; a circumstance which makes them less generally esteemed than the surpassing beauty of many of them merits. The greater part of the order is clothed with stellate pubescence, and a reniform one-celled anther is a character common to the whole. These two peculiarities, together with the alternate stipulate leaves, distinguish Malvaceæ from all the rest of Dichlamydeæ. All the species abound in a nutritive mucilage; a quality which renders the young heads of the Ochro, or Hibiscus esculentus, an object of great value within the tropics, as an ingredient in soups. In Brazil, the Abútilon esculéntum serves the same purposes. The emollient properties of Althæ'a officinális, or Guimauve of the French, are well known to physicians, as a remedy for catarrhs and pulmonary complaints. A decoction of the leaves of Sphærálcea cisplatina is used for similar objects in Brazil. A species of Pavónia is employed in the same country as a diuretic in the form of a decoction. The straight shoots of Sida micrantha are employed as rocket-sticks at Rio Janeiro. The chewed leaves of Sída carpinifólia allay the inflammation occasioned by the stings of wasps. The tough fibres of many Malvaceæ are manufactured into cordage. Their petals are astringent; whence those of Hibiscus Rósa sinensis are used in China to blacken the eyelashes and the leather of shoes. The fibrous threads in which the seeds of Gossypium are enveloped furnish the valuable cotton, an article of immense importance to the world; these threads when examined by the microscope, will be seen to be finely toothed, which explains the cause of their adhering together with greater facility than those of Bombax and several Apocineæ, which are destitute of teeth, and which cannot be spun into thread without an admixture of cotton. 1471 Málope W. 1476 Maláchra W. 1487 Sída W. 1472 Málva W. 1477 Uréna W. 1478 Pavónia W. 1475 Lavatéra W. 1474 Althæa W. 1484 Cristária Cav. 1485 Anóda Cav. 1479 Achánia W. 1480 Hibíscus W. 1482 Redoutéa Vent. 1483 Palávia W. 1488 Lagunéa W. 1481 Gossypium W. 1473 Kitaibélia W. 1486 Períptera Dec.