MALE FERN. 



MALT. 



especially in the Western States, where such 

 luxuriant crops of maize can be raised at little 

 expense. 



MALE FERN. See FERN. 



MALIC ACID. This vegetable acid exists 

 in the juices of many fruits and plants, alone, 

 or associated with the citric, tartaric, and oxalic 

 acids; and occasionally combined with potash 

 or lime. Unripe apples, pears, sloes, barber- 

 ries, the berries of the mountain-ash, elder- 

 berries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, 

 raspberries, bilberries, brambleberries, whortle- 

 berries, cherries, ananas, afford malic acid ; 

 the house-leek and purslane contain the malate 

 of lime. 



The acid may be obtained most conveniently 

 from the juice of the berries of the mountain- 

 ash, or barberries. This must be clarified, by 

 mixing with white of egg, and heating the mix- 

 ture to ebullition ; then filtering, digesting the 

 clear liquor with carbonate of lead, till it be- 

 comes neutral ; and evaporating the saline 

 solution till crystals of malate of lead be ob- 

 tained. These are to be washed with cold 

 water, and purified by re-crystallization. On 

 dissolving the white salt in water, and passing 

 a stream of sulphureted hydrogen through the 

 solution, the lead will be all separated in the 

 form of a sulphuret, and the liquor, after filtra- 

 tion and evaporation, will yield yellow granu- 

 lar crystals, or cauliflower concretions, of 

 malic acid, which may be blanched by re-dis- 

 solution and digestion with bone-black, and 

 re-crystallization. 



Malic acid has no smell, but a very sour 

 taste, deliquesces by absorption of moisture 

 from the air, is soluble in alcohol, fuses at 

 150 Fahr., is decomposed at a heat of 348, 

 and affords by distillation a peculiar acid, the 

 pyromalic. It consists in 100 parts, of 41-47 

 carbon ; 3-51 hydrogen ; and 55-02 oxygen ; 

 having nearly the same composition as citric 

 acid. A crude malic acid might be economi- 

 cally extracted from the fruit of the mountain- 

 ash (sorbus acccnparia), applicable to many 

 purposes; but it has not hitherto been manu- 

 factured upon the great scale. (Ure's Diet.) 



MALLOW (Mnlva, altered from the Greek 

 ynalache, soft, which comes from malarho, to 

 soften, in allusion to the emollient qualities of 

 the species). This is an extensive genus of 

 plants, some of the species of which are very 

 ornamental. Among the most interesting of 

 the hardy herbaceous species, are M. moschata, 

 M. munroana, and M. purpurata. They should 

 be planted in the flower-border, and increased 

 by divisions of the roots, or by seeds. The 

 annual species should be sown in the open 

 ground; but few of these are worth culti- 

 vating. 



In England, the indigenous species are three 

 in number. 1. Common mallow (M. sylveslris), 

 a perennial weed which is very common about 

 hedgerows, roadsides, and in cultivated as well 

 as waste ground. The root is tapering, branch- 

 ing, whitish ; stem upright, much branched, 

 widely spreading, 1 to 3 feet high, in a barren 

 soil recumbent; leaves deep-green, soft, and 

 downy, with seven acute lobes; foot-stalks 

 and flower-stalks hairy; the flowers, which 

 appear from May to Ausrust, are numerous, of 

 758 



a shining purple, veiny, on simple aggregate 

 stalks. The leaves are mucilaginous and 

 emollient, like the marsh-mallow; and were 

 formerly often used in food to prevent costive- 

 ness. The fruit is a depressed disk, and is 

 called by the country people "cheeses." 



2. Dwarf mallow (M. rotundifolia). This 

 species is also very common in waste ground, 

 and by footpaths near towns and villages. It 

 is annual in habit; has a tapering root. The 

 whole plant is smaller than the last, and is 

 quite prostrate, with numerous stems scarcely 

 branched. Leaves roundish, heart-shaped, 

 with five, often seven, shallow lobes. Flowers 

 pale lilac-coloured, several together on axillary 

 hairy stalks ; the stalks when in fruit are bent 

 downwards. 



3. Musk mallow (M. moschata'). This is a 

 less common perennial species, found in the 

 grassy borders of fields, &c., on a gravelly soil. 

 The root is tough and woody; the herbage is 

 bright green, more or less rough, with spread- 

 ing, simple, not starry hairs, unaccompanied 

 with any short, dense, woolly pubescence, and 

 exhaling a musky odour, especially in hot wea- 

 ther, or when drawn tightly through the hand. 

 Stems about two feet high, leafy, round, but 

 little branched. Radical leaves kidney-shaped, 

 cut, soon withering away; the rest in five deep, 

 pinnatifid, jagged segments. The flowers, which 

 appear in July and August, are on long, axillary, 

 simple stalks, rose-coloured, large and hand- 

 some ; calyx hairy, its outer leaves linear-lan- 

 ceolate. 



Five North American species of the genus 

 Malva are described by Nuttall. One of these, 

 the M. coccinea, is very beautiful, with scarlet 

 flowers disposed in dense racemes, and is found 

 from the confluence of the river Platte and 

 Missouri, often extending over the plains in 

 such quantities as to communicate a brilliant 

 redness to thousands of acres. Dr. Darlington 

 describes two species as found in Chester 

 county, Pennsylvania, one of which is the 

 woodland or wild malva (M. sylvestris), some- 

 times called high mallows. It is a naturalized 

 foreigner, met with in fields and waste places, 

 whither it has escaped from gardens. The 

 other species is the round-leaved malva (M. 

 rotundifolia'), commonly called low mallows, 

 and running mallows. This is common in 

 yards, gardens, and grass-lots. It is also a 

 foreigner, and so extensively naturalized as to 

 be somewhat troublesome. It is a popular in- 

 gredient in domestic practice for poultices, 

 drinks, &c. "The M. crispa and M. moschata. 

 are frequent in our gardens, and the latter has 

 in a few instances strayed beyond the garden 

 limits, but can scarcely be considered as natu- 

 ralized. Several species have been recently 

 found in the distant territories of this Repub- 

 lic, and in. British America ; but it is doubtful 

 whether any genuine malva is indigenous in 

 the old thirteen states." (Flor. Cestrica.) 



MALLOW, THE MARSH. See MARSH- 

 MM. M>W. 



MALLOW, THE TREE. See TREE-MAI- 

 LOW. 



MALT (Fr. mal; Ital. malto; Lat. maltum). 

 The term malt is applied to designate grain 

 which, being steeped in water, is made to ger- 



