Calyx with a 3-leaved involucel. Petals obovate. Stamens 10--20. Stigmas capitate. Carpels 14--20, kidney-shaped, pointed, and at length 2-valved at the top; the cavity divided into two by a cross partition, with a single seed in each cell.--Humble, procumbent or creeping annuals or biennials, with cut leaves and small purplish flowers solitary in the axils. (Name from _modiolus_, the broad and depressed fruit resembling in shape the Roman measure of that name.)
1. M. multífida, Moench. Hairy; leaves 3--5-cleft and incised; stamens 15--20; fruit hispid at the top.--Low grounds, Va. and southward.
Pod depressed, with a single seed in each cell. Otherwise as Hibiscus. (Named after _V. F. Kosteletzky_, a Bohemian botanist.)
1. K. Virgínica, Gray. Roughish-hairy perennial (2--4° high); leaves halberd-shaped and heart-shaped, the lower 3-lobed; corolla 2´ wide, rose-color; column slender.--Marshes on the coast, N. Y. and southward. Aug.
Calyx involucellate at the base by a row of numerous bractlets, 5-cleft. Column of stamens long, bearing anthers for much of its length. Styles united, stigmas 5, capitate. Fruit a 5-celled loculicidal pod. Seeds several or many in each cell.--Herbs or shrubs, usually with large and showy flowers. (An old Greek and Latin name of unknown meaning.)
[*] _Indigenous tall perennials (4--8° high), flowering late in summer._
1. H. Moscheùtos, L. (SWAMP ROSE-MALLOW.) _Leaves ovate_, pointed, toothed, the lower 3-lobed, the uppermost oblong-lanceolate, all whitened underneath with a fine soft down, glabrous or slightly downy above; the 1-flowered peduncles sometimes united at the base with the petioles; bractlets not hairy; _calyx not inflated; pod and seeds smooth_ or nearly so.--Brackish marshes along the coast, from E. Mass. southward, and lake shores and swamps westward to Ill. and Mo., especially within the influence of salt springs.--Corolla 5--6´ in diameter, light rose-color or white, with or without a crimson eye.
2. H. lasiocárpus, Cav. Leaves soft-downy both sides, the lower broadly ovate and heart-shaped; bractlets ciliate; pod hirsute;--otherwise resembling the last. (H. grandiflorus, _Michx._)--Ind. to Mo., and southward.
3. H. militàris, Cav. (HALBERD-LEAVED R.) _Smooth throughout_; lower leaves ovate-heart-shaped, toothed, 3-lobed; _upper leaves halberd-form_, the short lateral lobes spreading at the base, the middle one prolonged and taper-pointed; peduncles slender; _fruiting calyx inflated; seeds hairy_.--River-banks, Penn. to Minn., and southward.--Corolla 2--3´ long, flesh-color with purple base.