MALLOW TRIBE 135 



of some showers of pollen, one of which fell at Troy, New York, and 

 another in the harbour of Picton. In the latter case, so large a quantity of 

 pollen was carried through the air, on a serene night in June, that a portion 

 alighting on a vessel in the harbour had to be collected and thrown over by 

 the bucketful in the morning. A small quantity of the powder was, in each 

 of these cases, preserved, and sent to Professor J. W. Bailey, for microscopic 

 examination. This gentleman ascertained that the powder which fell at 

 Picton was wholly composed of the pollen of a species of pine, and that the 

 substance collected from Troy was formed of that of various trees, though 

 he was unable to state with certainty from what trees it had proceeded. 

 Drawings of the three forms of pollen met with in this powder from 

 Troy were furnished by Professor Bailey ; and Mr. Hassall, after examina- 

 tion, considered that two of them have to be referred to some endogenous 

 plants, one, most probably, to a species of grass, the other, perhaps, to 

 a plant of the water-lily genus ; and that the third form was unques- 

 tionably the pollen of an exogenous plant, not unlikely to be that of the 

 hazel. 



The seeds of the MalloAV are often by country children, both in England 

 and France, called cheeses ; and many of us besides Clare can recall 



"The sitting down, when school was o'er, 

 Upon the threshold of the door, 

 Picking from Mallows, sport to please, 

 The crumpled seed we call'd a cheese." 



The leaves of the Mallow are used as an application to wounds, and are 

 often boiled and placed with excellent effect over painful swellings ; and an 

 infusion or decoction of the leaves is a very valuable and simple medicine in 

 cases where mucilaginous drinks are needed. Did we prize them as the old 

 herbalists did, we might exclaim with the poet — 



"Alas ! when Mallows in the garden die ;' 



for wondrous indeed were the virtues imputed to them in the olden time. 

 The leaves boiled in wine and water are said, by one old writer, to be " very 

 convenient in agues " ; and the decoction of the seed in milk was said, with 

 more reason, "marvellously to help diseases of the chest" ; while the leaves 

 laid upon the eye were to remove all its maladies ; and, rubbed upon a limb- 

 stung by a wasp, were to take away all pain. The feet were to be bathed 

 with a decoction of the leaves, roots, and flowers, as a certain cure for a cold; 

 and the falling off of the hair was to be stayed by a timely application of a 

 similar preparation. We are amused at finding how confidently both herba- 

 lists and poets of those days trusted in the efficacy of plants. They must 

 have had hopeful natures, the men of those times, to have lost sight of the 

 repeated disappointments which must have followed the application of some 

 of their specifics. Michael Drayton, in the " Poly olbion," gives along list 

 of plants prized for healing virtues, and does not omit the truly useful 

 Mallow : — 



"Here wholesome plantaine, that the paine The med'cinable Mallow here, 



Of eyes and ears appeases ; Assuaging sudden tumours ; 



Here cooling sorrel, that againe The jagged polypodiuni tliere, 



We use in hot diseases ; To purge out evil humours." 



