in botany: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the polyandria clasps of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 37th order, Columnee. The corolla is pentapetalous; the calyx pentaphyllous and deciduous; and the capsule many-valved and many-celled.

There are eight species; of which the most remarkable is the olitorius, an annual,* and a native of Asia, Africa, and America. It rises with a round, bristled, upright, branched stalk, to near two feet, which is furnished with leaves differing in shape; some being oval, some cut off straight at their base, and others almost heart-shaped. They are of a deep green colour, and have a few teeth on the margins of their base, that end in bristly, reflexed, purplish filaments. The flowers come out at the sides of the branches opposite to the leaves. They stand singly on very short peduncles; are composed of five small yellow petals, and a great number of stamens surrounding an oblong germen, which becomes a long, rough, sharp-pointed capsule, opening in four parts, each filled with greenish angular seeds.—This plant is known by the Jews about Aleppo, and is therefore called Jow mallow. The leaves are a favourite salad among these people, and they boil and eat them with their meat.