

MALLOW. YEW. 185 



one leaf, with divisions only, not three separate 

 leaves; and in Althae'a, of which the Hollyhock 

 in our garden is a Chinese species, the divisions 

 are nine. " The inner cup of the Mal'va is of one 

 " leaf, with five shallow divisions. The blossom is 

 " composed of five heart-shaped flat petals, united 

 " at the bottom to the tube formed by the filaments. 

 " The middle of the receptacle rises like a little 

 " pillar; and the seed-vessels, which are generally 

 " eight in number, with one seed in each, stand 

 <c round it in a circle." 



There are three or four native species of Mal'va: 

 ours, which is the Sylves'tris, or common Mallow, 

 is distinguished from the others by a rough, up- 

 right, and somewhat woody stem. The leaves are 

 hairy, with five or seven divisions, and they all 

 have a dark purplish stain at the lower part, 

 near the stalk ; the edges unequally notched : the 

 leaf-stalks and fruit-stalks are hairy. The ancients 

 made considerable use of mallows in their food ; 

 but these plants are no longer employed for that 

 purpose. 



Of the Yew-tree, Tax'us, there is but one spe- 

 cies, Bacca'ta, native in England, the wood of which 

 is uncommonly hard, tough, smooth when cut, 

 and beautifully veined with red. It is so durable, 

 that it is a common saying, amongst the inhabitants 

 of New-Forest, in Hampshire, that a post of 

 yew will outlive a post of iron. Yew-trees were 



