THE COMMON MALLOW. 83 



form. This is a very characteristic feature of all members 

 of the mallow family. The arrangement is called mona- 

 delphous, from two Greek words signifying one brotherhood. 

 The style is either composed of one or more members 

 having several stigmata. The fruit is a capsule made 

 up of several parts arranged in a ring round the base of 

 the style. By country children they are often called 

 " cheeses/' from their circular yet flattened form, and 

 are freely eaten by them. They are quite harmless, and 

 any number apparently may be eaten with impunity. 

 The hollyhock of our gardens is a cultivated species of 

 mallow, and all the points we have above referred to may 

 be well seen in it, as its size makes it an easy matter 

 to detect the various features of growth we have en- 

 deavoured to elucidate. The cotton-plant is another well- 

 known species of mallow. The common mallow is 

 botanically known as the Malva sylvestris. The genus 

 was so named by Linnaeus, in allusion to the soothing 

 effect and valuable mucilaginous nature of the species, 

 almost all of which possess emollient qualities of distinct 

 value in the healing art. The word malm is derived from 

 a Greek word signifying soft. The specific name refers to 

 the places where the plant may often be found, and is a 

 term of not unfrequent occurrence in botanical nomen- 

 clature. We meet with it, for instance, in the scientific 

 name of the horse-mint, Mentha sylvestris, and several 

 other plants. The plant was by the Anglo-Saxons called 

 Main or Medlwe. It is the Halve of the Germans, the 

 Mauve of the French. 



The common mallow is a perennial. It attains to 

 a height of some three feet, or even more, on waste 

 land, though by the roadside it may often be seen 



