CLASS XVI. ORDER III. | MALVA. 945 
Habitat.—W aste places, road sides, &c.; common in England and 
Ireland ; less frequent in Scotland. 
Perennial; flowering from June to August. 
The leaves, flowers, and tender branches of this plant, have long 
been used in the form of decoction for fomentation, and made into 
poultices for the relief of local inflammations, as well as made into a 
drink, in cases of fever, sore throat, &c., and it is a useful and 
soothing application in various cases; but as a drink its decoction is 
superseded by the roots of the Marsh Mallow, (Althea officinalis, 
page 946.) 
2. M. rotundifollia, Linn. (Fig. 1095.) Dwarf Mallow. Stem 
prostrate ; leaves roundish, heart-shaped, five to seven lobed; pedun- 
cles axillary, deflexed after flowering; corolla small, as long again as 
the calyx. 
English Botany, t. 1092.—English Flora, vol. iil. p. 246.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 261.—Lindley, Synopsis, p 40. 
B. pusilla. (Fig. 1096.) Petals as small as the calyx. 
8. English Flora, vol. iii. p. 246.— Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. 
vol. i. p. 261.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 40.—M. pusilla—English 
Botany, t. 241. 
Root tapering. Stems numerous, prostrate, mostly simple, round, 
or somewhat angular, clothed with close pubescence. Leaves alter- 
nate, dark green, paler beneath, roundish, heart-shaped, with five to 
seven rounded acute lobes, the petioles long, slender, spreading, all 
clothed with close pubescence. Inflorescence axillary clusters of pale 
pink flowers, each on a round slender downy pedicle, erect in flower, 
deflexed in fruit. Jnvolucrum of three narrow pieces, shorter than the 
five acute lobed calyx. Corolla of five inversely heart-shaped petals, 
about as long again as the calyx, a pale pink, in f. they are about 
the length of the calyx, pale, almost white, and the whole plant is 
smaller. /ruit numerous, carpels united together around a common 
axis, covered with close downiness, each carpel is kidney-shaped, and 
rough, with reticulations on the back, each bearing a single kidney- 
shaped seed. 
Habitat.—Road side and waste places; frequent. 
Annual; flowering from June to September. 
3. M. moscha'ta, Linn. (Fig. 1097.) Musk Mallow. Stem erect, 
the radical leaves rounded, from five to seven obtuse lobes, the upper 
ones five partite, and cut into numerous linear segments; flowers 
mostly in terminal heads ; peduncles and calyx hairy. 
English Botany, t 754.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 246.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 262 —Lindley, Synopsis, p. 40. 
Root hard and woody. The whole plant is of a cheerful green 
colour, more or less thickly scattered over with simple hairs, swollen 
at the base, and in warm weather it exhales a musky odour. Stem 
