THE MARSH MALLOW— continued. 
two inches in diameter, are borne in short-stalked axillary cymes, and are each 
followed by a fruit consisting, as in Malva, of a ring of indehiscent one-seeded 
mericarps surrounded by the persistent ovate sepals. The deep rose-coloured 
anthers of the numerous united stamens mature before the stigmas become 
receptive ; and, as they wither, the circle of slender styles, equal in number to 
the carpels, develop a stigmatic surface down their inner surfaces. 
The mucilage of the rhizome, extracted by boiling, is extensively used in 
France, under the name Guimauve , in the preparation of demulcent drinks and cough 
lozenges; and it was this soothing property that originated the generic name Althcea , 
which comes from the Greek a\dco, altho, I heal, just as the name Mallow , from 
the Latin Malva and the Greek malache , is derived from jtxaXacr crco, malasso, 
I soften. The English name is variously given in Turner and other early botanical 
writers as Mersmalewe, Mershe Mallowe, Marish Mallowe, and Moorish Mallow. Gerard, 
in 1597, writes of it as growing 
“very plentifully in the marshes both on the Kentish & Essex shore alongst the riuer of Thames about Woolwich, Erith, 
Greenehyth, Gravesend, Tilburie, Lee, Colchester, Harwich, and in most salt marshes about London ” ; 
and there are even eighteenth-century records of its occurrence at Chelsea and at 
the Isle of Dogs. 
Of several other species of Althcea grown in gardens, the most important is the 
Hollyhock ( A . rosea Cavanilles), a native of China, which has been in cultivation in 
Britain for more than three centuries. It is a perennial rejoicing in rich, deep, 
well-manured loam, with plenty of water in summer and dryness in winter ; and its 
tall stems, with their large, almost sessile, and often doubled blossoms, presenting a 
great range of colours, are familiar objects in every cottage garden. The beautiful 
flowering shrub often known as Althcea frutex is Hibiscus syriacus Linne, belonging to 
a distinct, though nearly related, genus. 
