malvacea

plural malvaceas

1. Any plant of the mallow family, Malvaceae.

   As textile plants, we have cotton, maguey, and emajagua, and, less useful, the guasima and some herbaceous malvaceas.

   1899, Report on the Island of Porto Rico; Its Population, Civil Government, Commerce, Industries, Productions, Roads, Tariff, and Currency, with Recommendations, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 225

   5 more examples

   Flower of a malvacea: a, the calyx; b, the corolla; c, the stamens united in a tubular androphorum (from the Greek aner, man, or in Botany, a stamen, and pherein to bear—a columnar expansion of the centre of the flower upon which the stamens seem to grow;) d, the stigmata.

   1844, W[illiam] S. W. Ruschenberger, Elements of Botany. Prepared for the Use of Schools and Colleges, Philadelphia, Pa; New York, N.Y.: Turner & Fisher, page 76

   Not a single one of these malvaceas but has its property, purgative or febrifuginous, and if medical botany ever minutely studies these humble climbers, in root, bark, and flower, they will find more than one treasure.

   1870, Ferdinand de Lanoye, The Sublime in Nature; Compiled from the Descriptions of Travellers and Celebrated Writers, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner and Company, page 328

   A group of the malvaceas, known as vassouras, is so persistent and universal in its growth that, if Brazil possessed a department similar to that in the Australian Colonies, they would become proclaimed plants.

   1909, J. C. Oakenfull, Brazil in 1909, page 136

   The chief characteristic of the Amazonian forest, aside from its magnitude, is the great diversity of genera and species. In the northern temperate zone we find forests of a single species, others of three or four species; in this great tropical forest the habit of growth is solitary and an acre of ground will contain hundreds of species—palms, myrtles, acacias, mimosas, cecropias, euphorbias, malvaceas, laurels, cedrellas, bignonias, bombaceas, apocyneas, malpigias, lecythises, swartzias, &c.

   1910, “Brazil”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, 11th edition, volume IV, Cambridge: at the University Press, page 444, column 2

   A number of fine fiber plants, including ramie, many malvaceas, and piassava, furnish a small supply of fibers, which could be very greatly increased if the other industries of the country did not absorb the energies of the people.

   1914, South America as an Export Field (Special Agents Series; number 81), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 71