MALVACEAE

malvaceae, in botany, an order of dicotyledons belonging to the series columniferae, to which belong also the orders tiliaceae (containing _tilia_, the lime-tree), bombaceae (containing _adansonia_, the baobab), sterculiaceae (containing _theobroma_, cocoa, and _colo_, cola-nut). it contains 39 genera with about 300 species, and occurs in all regions except the coldest, the number of species increasing as we approach the tropics. it is represented in britain by three genera: _malva_, mallow; _althaea_, marsh-mallow; and _lavatera_, tree-mallow. the plants are herbs, as in the british mallows, or, in the warmer parts of the earth, shrubs or trees. the leaves are alternate and often palmately lobed or divided; the stipules generally fall early. the leaves and young shoots often bear stellate hairs and the tissues contain mucilage-sacs. the regular, hermaphrodite, often showy flowers are borne in the leaf-axils, solitary or in fasicles, or form more or less complicated cymose arrangements. an epicalyx (see mallow, figs. 3, 4), formed by a whorl of three or more bracteoles is generally present just beneath the calyx; sometimes, as in _abutilon_, it is absent. the parts of the flowers are typically in fives (fig. 1); the five sepals, which have a valvate aestivation, are succeeded by five often large showy petals which are twisted in the bud; they are free to the base, where they are attached to the staminal tube and fall with it when the flower withers. the very numerous stamens are regarded as arising from the branching of a whorl of five opposite the petals; they are united into a tube at the base, and bear kidney-shaped one-celled anthers which open by a slit across the top (fig. 2). the large spherical pollen-grains are covered with spines. the carpels are one to numerous; when five in number, as in _abutilon_, they are opposite the petals, or, as in _hibiscus_, opposite the sepals. in the british genera and many others they are numerous, forming a whorl round the top of the axis in the centre of the flower, the united styles rising from the centre and bearing a corresponding number of stigmatic branches. in _malope_ the numerous carpels are arranged one above the other in vertical rows. one or more anatropous ovules are attached to the inner angle of each carpel; they are generally ascending but sometimes pendulous or horizontal; the position may vary, as in _abutilon_, in one and the same carpel. [illustration: fig. 1.--floral diagram of hollyhock (_althaea rosea_). a, stamens. b, bract. g, pistil of carpels. i, epicalyx, formed from an involucre of bracteoles. p, petals. s, sepals.] [illustration: fig. 2. 1, anther. 2, pollen grain of hollyhock (_althaea rosea_) enlarged. the pollen grain bears numerous spines, the dark spots indicate thin places in the extine.] the flowers are proterandrous; when the flower opens the unripe stigmas are hidden in the staminal tube and the anthers occupy the centre of the flower; as the anthers dehisce the filaments bend backwards and finally the ripe stigmas spread in the centre. pollination is effected by insects which visit the flower for the honey, which is secreted in pits one between the base of each petal and is protected from rain by hairs on the lower margin of the petals. in small pale-flowered forms, like _malva rotundifolia_, which attract few insects, self-pollination has been observed, the style-arms twisting to bring the stigmatic surfaces into contact with the anthers. except in _malvaviscus_ which has a berry, the fruits are dry. in _malva_ (see mallow) and allied genera they form one-seeded schizocarps separating from the persistent central column and from each other. in _hibiscus_ and _gossypium_ (cotton-plant, q.v.), the fruit is a capsule splitting loculicidally. distribution of the seeds is sometimes aided by hooked outgrowths on the wall of the schizocarp, or by a hairy covering on the seed, an extreme case of which is the cotton-plant where the seed is buried in a mass of long tangled hairs--the cotton. the embryo is generally large with much-folded cotyledons and a small amount of endosperm. the largest genus, _hibiscus_, contains 150 species, which are widely distributed chiefly in the tropics; _h. rosasinensis_ is a well-known greenhouse plant. _abutilon_ (q.v.) contains 80 species, mainly tropical; _lavatera_, with 20 species, is chiefly mediterranean; _althaea_ has about 15 species in temperate and warm regions, _a. rosea_ being the hollyhock (q.v.); _malva_ has about 30 species in the north-temperate zone. several genera are largely or exclusively american. malvasia (gr. _monemvasia_, i.e. the "city of the single approach or entrance"; ital. _napoli di malvasia_; turk. _mengeshe_ or _beneshe_), one of the principal fortresses and commercial centres of the levant during the middle ages, still represented by a considerable mass of ruins and a town of about 550 inhabitants. it stood on the east coast of the morea, contiguous to the site of the ancient epidaurus limera, of which it took the place. so extensive was its trade in wine that the name of the place became familiar throughout europe as the distinctive appellation of a special kind--ital. _malvasia_; span. _malvagia_; fr. _malvoisie_; eng. _malvesie_ or _malmsey_. the wine was not of local growth, but came for the most part from tenos and others of the cyclades. as a fortress malvasia played an important part in the struggles between byzantium, venice and turkey. the byzantine emperors considered it one of their most valuable posts in the morea, and rewarded its inhabitants for their fidelity by unusual privileges. phrantzes (lib. iv. cap. xvi.) tells how the emperor maurice made the city (previously dependent in ecclesiastical matters on corinth) a metropolis or archbishop's see, and how alexius comnenus, and more especially andronicus ii. (palaeologus) gave the monembasiotes freedom from all sorts of exactions throughout the empire. it was captured after a three years' siege by guillaume de villehardouin in 1248, but the citizens retained their liberties and privileges, and the town was restored to the byzantine emperors in 1262. after many changes, it placed itself under venice from 1463 to 1540, when it was ceded to the turks. in 1689 it was the only town of the morea which held out against morosini, and cornaro his successor only succeeded in reducing it by famine. in 1715 it capitulated to the turks, and on the failure of the insurrection of 1770 the leading families were scattered abroad. as the first fortress which fell into the hands of the greeks in 1821, it became in the following year the seat of the first national assembly. see curtius, _peloponnesos_, ii. 293 and 328; castellan, _lettres sur la moree_ (1808), for a plan; valiero, _hist. della guerra di candia_ (venice, 1679), for details as to the fortress; w. miller in _journal of hellenic studies_ (1907).