292 0^ THE TilEE MALLOW. 



tlaeir applicability for feeding winged game and many other kinds 

 of wild birds. In addition to the cattle-feeding and imper-onaking 

 properties of the tree mallow, it may be beneficially and 

 economically employed for other purposes ; such as — 



Sheltering sea-exposed gardens, and other grounds. At a meet- 

 ing with the Largo Naturalists' Field Club, some years since, the 

 late Mr Dickson, one of the original proprietors and editors of 

 the " Cbina Mail," who then resided at Elie, in Fife, told me 

 that his garden was so directly exposed to the sea winds and 

 spray that he had to grow a hedge-like belt of the tree, or, as it 

 is there called, the Bass Rock mallow, on the sea-ward side of 

 his crops, for their protection, and that it answered that purpose 

 admirably. At a meeting of the Scottish Arboricultural Society, 

 held on the 1st of November last, I recommended the tree, or as 

 it is sometimes called the sea mallow, as a nurse for sea-exposed 

 young plantations, it being peculiarly adapted for affording 

 protection to the young trees before these attain sufficient sizes 

 to shelter one another. When thus employed it is advisable to 

 sow the mallow seeds in nursery drills or beds towards the end 

 of June, so that they may not flower next year, and transplant 

 them as soon as they are 4 to 6 inches high, where the forest 

 trees are to be planted next spring. For succession, another 

 planting of like sized mallows should be made in July or August 

 following, to remain green and so maintain the shelter after those 

 first planted have seeded and been harvested. Afterwards the 

 seeds that will get scattered annually, even with careful harvest- 

 ing, will suffice to keep up a sufficient succession as long as the 

 sheltering aid of the mallows may be needed. 



That " nutritive mucilage^' which is peculiar to the Malvacem, 

 or mallow family, and for the esculent, emollient, and other 

 properties of which the okra (Hihiscus esculentus), the marsh 

 mallow {Althea officinalis), and others are much reputed, is also 

 abundantly present in the tree mallow, from which it may be 

 obtained in sufficient quantities to allow of its being used as a 

 condiment in the less nutritious animal foods, such as cut straw, 

 chaff, &c., in addition to its more extended employment in culinary 

 dishes, comfits, and the manufacture of toilet soaps. The okra 

 above mentioned is extensively cultivated in tropical and sub- 

 tropical countries for its pods and seeds, the former in their 

 young state being pickled like those of kidney beans ; the latter 

 impart a mucilaginous thickening to soups, and are used in the 

 manner of green peas ; when ripe they are boiled like barley, and 

 roasted as a substitute for coffee. The okra has also been long 

 recognized as a textile plant, and a patent has recently been 

 taken out in France for making paper from its fibre, for which it 

 is being extensively cultivated in Algeria. Its fibre is prepared 

 solely by mechanical means, in a current of water, without any 



