TREE-MALLOW.
Lavatera assurgentiflora, Kell. Mallow Family.
Shrubs.—Six to fifteen feet high. Leaves.—Three to nine inches across. Flowers.—Pink, veined with maroon. Calyx.—Five-cleft, with an involucel below, like a second calyx. Petals.—Twelve to eighteen lines long. Filaments.—Numerous; united in a column. Styles.—Numerous; filiform. Carpels.—One-seeded, in a ring around an axis; separating at maturity. Hab.—The islands off the Coast; cultivated on the mainland north to Mendocino County.
The Lavateras are Old-World plants, with the exception of a few species which are natives of the islands of our southern coast. In the early days the Padres planted the above species (L. assurgentiflora) plentifully around the old Missions, and thence it has spread and become spontaneous in many localities. It can be seen in San Francisco, planted as wind-break hedges about the market-gardens, where it thrives luxuriantly as long as it is protected from cattle.
The leaves and twigs abound in mucilage, and are very fattening and nutritious food for sheep and cattle, who are very fond of it.