On the History of some Bass Plants, by Mr. J. Hardy. 93 



they have growne six or seven months, come to be in the 

 nature of pretie trees ; insomuch, as their stalkes streight- 

 waies serve in stead of walking staves."* Fee refers this to 

 our Lavatera arborea. 



Csesalpinus commemorates a Malva arborescens, or Den- 

 dromalache ; and in the " Hortus " of Camerarius (Franco- 

 furti, 1588, p. 95), we have it with this name. He found it 

 plenteously near Pisa, but during winter it did not stand 

 the open air in Germany. " Hyeme apud nos in loco idoneo 

 recondi debet." In the appendix to Gesner's " Horti 

 Germanise " (Tiguri, 1561, p. 293), it first acquired the form 

 in which it is familiar to us of Malva arborea. He saw it 

 first at Strasburg, in the garden of Herlin. It perished in 

 the open air in the first frosts. There is mention of it in 

 most of the great works upon botany in that age : Matthi- 

 olus, Dodonseus, Dalechampius, Pena, J. and G. Banhin ; 

 sometimes as a constituent in monkish gardens, or nursed 

 in those of the curious. Dalechampf testifies that ft was 

 grown in the gardens of Flanders, England, and Germany. 

 J. Bauhinj saw it in those at Esling, Montpellier, Geneva, 

 Basle, and Mumpelgard. Pena§ noticed it as attaining great 

 bulk in the garden of the convent of the Holy Spirit near 

 Venice. Hence, I think, C. Bauhin borrowed his " Malva 

 arborea Veneta dicta parvo flore,"|| by which it was long- 

 known. It was on Bauhin's plant that Linnaaus founded 

 the Lavatera arborea, and not our dwarf er sea-side form. 

 Gerard was ignorant of this plant, but not his editor, John- 

 son ; and it is described in Parkinson. SibbaldlT met with 

 it "in Inch Garvy and Myrkie-Inch, in the Firth of Forth"; 

 where, in recent times, Professor Balfour has sought for it in 

 vain. Ray was the first to record it for the Bass. Might 

 not some of the old anchorites introduce the tree-mallow to 

 some of its island sites, as memorials of lands afar off, or 

 carried with them from some garden on the mainland, — a 

 form of beauty still cherished amidst a condition verging on 

 that of savage ? 



Lavatera, writes Philip Miller ("Gard. Diet."), "takes its 

 name of the physician Helveticus Lavaterus, the friend of 

 Mons. Tournefort ; upon which account Tournefort so intitled 



* Holland's " Plinie," ii., p. 13. London, 1601. 



f " Hist. Gen. <Ls Plantes," i, p. 496. Lyon, 1653. 



X " Hist. Plantarum," ii., p. 954. Ebrorfrtni, 1651. 



§ " Stirp. Advers.," p. 233. 



|i "Pinax," p. 315. Basileaa, 1623. 



f " Scotia Hlust," p. 37. 



