CLXVII. — THE MUSK MALLOW. 
Malva moschata Linne. 
HERE is considerable evidence that the whole Order Malvales was originally 
adapted for insect-pollination. Most members of the Order have large, 
conspicuous, honey-secreting flowers, often dichogamous, producing, that is, their 
anthers and stigmas in a mature condition at slightly differing times, so that cross- 
pollination is almost a necessity, and not infrequently having prominent coloured 
veins in their petals which serve as honey-guides. Where, as in the Linden, the 
flowers are not so large and are not conspicuously coloured, their perfume may 
attract insects from a distance, and they may be so massed together as to be 
collectively conspicuous. A less obvious character, which is an indication of the 
same thing, is the pollen, which in all our three British species of Mallow, for 
instance, is known as echinulate, or sea-urchin-like, each little grain being thickly beset 
with minute spinous points. By them the grains become interlocked with one 
another and cling to the hairy legs of the bees, which group of insects are the chief 
visitors. This is the case alike in Malva sylveslris, M. moschata, and M. rotundifolia, 
although they differ considerably in the size of the individual pollen-grains, those of 
M. sylvestris being 140 micromillimetres in diameter, while those of M. rotundifolia 
are only 100 micromillimetres. This form of pollen-grain suggests that the small 
pale pink blossoms of the Dwarf Mallow ( Malva rotundifolia Linne), which are often 
concealed beneath the leaves and mature their pollen and stigmas simultaneously so 
as to be often self-pollinated, are either ancestrally or otherwise adapted for at least 
an occasional cross. Observation shows that this is the case : although the pallid 
little flowers hidden under the lee of some roadside barn are not visited by nearly 
so many species or individuals of insects, it is insect-visited. When its anthers have 
discharged their pollen, the styles have already elongated and they twist in among 
the stamens, which do not bend backward as in M. sylvestris. In this way pollen may 
reach the receptive stigmatic inner surfaces of these styles either from the anthers of 
the same flowers or from those of others whence it has been brought by insect 
agency. On the other hand, the large red and orange flowers of such Tropical 
genera as Hibiscus and Abutilon, though pollinated in Tropical America by humming- 
birds, may, in other countries, have the same function performed by the longer- 
tongued bees. It is noteworthy that in Abutilon the flowers are pendulous, being 
thus well adapted to the hovering flight of the tiny birds ; that the epicalyx, usual 
in the Family Malvacece, is absent, thus offering less obstacles to the entrance of 
small crawling insects for which, rather than for honey, the birds visit the flowers ; 
and that the colour is often red or orange, favourite colours apparently with 
humming-birds and thus with ornithophilous flowers. It is easy to understand that 
an entomophilous flower may readily become so modified as to be suited for 
bird-pollination, or so as to be self-pollinating. 
