128 WILD FLOWERS. 



borage, an ingredient in the drink, called a cool 

 tankard. 



Few persons could be found in the rural dis- 

 tricts of England who are unacquainted with 

 that common flower the mallow, {Maha syl- 

 vestris.) It grows by ovir every road side, and 

 in almost every meadow, and its handsome lilac 

 flowers and large and numerous leaves form a 

 picturesque object. Common as it is with us, 

 however, it is rarely found in Scotland. The 

 flowers continue through this and the two 

 following months, and its clumps of leaves 

 remain in the hedges till winter has swept aU 

 Ihe remnants of summer beauty before 'uS 

 rains and snows. There are few who have not, 

 during childhood, picked the circular seeds of 

 the mallow, and called them cheeses, and most 

 can sympathize with the reminiscences of Clare 

 on the subject : — 



" 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 a cheese." 



Nor is this play peculiar to the English child, 

 for the French children call them also les petits 

 fromageons. Like all the other parts of the 

 plant, they are used in medicines, not only by 

 the cottager, but by the regular practitioner, 

 though the greater power of the marsh mallow 

 causes it to be more generally selected for use 

 than this. The word mallow is derived from a 

 Greek word, signifying soft, on account of the 

 emollient properties of the plants of this tribe. 



Another kind of mallow, not quite so gene- 



