810 MONABELPHIA. POLYANBRIA. Lavatera, 
M. moscha'ta. Stem upright: root-leaves kidney-shaped, cut: stem- 
leaves with five divisions: segments between winged and many- 
cloven : leafits of the outer calyx distinct. 
Curt. —(2?. Bot. 754. E.)— FI. Dan. 905— Col. Ecphr. 147 —Walc—J. B. ii. 
1067. 1-— H. Ox. v. 18. 4. 
(Two or three feet high. Bloss. large and handsome, rose-coloured, one 
or two together from the axils of the terminal leaves. E.) In M. aicea 
the calyx has a protuberating ring at the base, and the outer cup is formed 
of three egg-shaped leafits, but M. moschaia has no ring at Jthe base of the 
calyx, and the leafits are spear-shaped. Curt. ML. modhata may also 
be distinguished by a musk-like smell proceeding from the herbage, but 
this is not always perceptible, and in this case it has been mistaken for 
M. aicea , not one of our natives. 
Musk Mallow. (Welsh : Hoccys mws. E.) Meadows, pastures, road 
sides, and ditch banks. Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Derbyshire, and 
the north, frequent. In Norfolk and Suffolk sparingly. Mr. Woodward. 
Common in the midland and more southern counties^ P. July—Aug. 
(A variety with white blosssoms has been observed by Mr. Dillwyn in 
fields near Eyethorn, in Kent, Bot. Guide; occasionally introduced into 
gardens. E.) 
LAVATE'RA.* Cal. double, the outer three-cleft : Capsules 
many, equal in number to the summits, placed in a circle, 
single-seeded. 
L. ARBobtEA. Stem arborescent : leaves with seven angles, downy, 
plaited: fruit-stalks crowded, axillary, single-flowered. 
part of an inch in diameter ; the granules within do not exceed the 10,000th part of an 
inch. r rhe pollen of our present species (the Mallow) is surrounded by minute spines, and 
the action of this pollen in water is represented, (Fig. 1 and 2, copied from Needham, in 
Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 2.) as though the case or shell emitted through a small aperture 
a train of minute globules, contorting themselves from one side to the other. These ob¬ 
servations stand confirmed by Mr. R. Bakewell : but that truly philosophical observer, Mr. 
R. Brown, has recently promulgated microscopical experiments to prove, not merely the 
general existence of active molecules in organic, but even in inorganic bodies ; insisting 
upon no less a novelty than that the ultimate particle obtainable from all bodies, organic 
and inorganic, “ has inherent motion, like unto vital action.” His observations were ex¬ 
tended from grains of pollen immersed in water to particles of metallic and mineral sub¬ 
stances, until he was induced to believe that he had detected even still more minute mole¬ 
cules in rapid oscillating motion. The elementary molecules of organic bodies have been 
admitted by Button, Needham, Wrisburg, Miller, and Dr. Milne Edwards; and in 1814, 
Dr. Drummond, now Professor in the Belfast Academical Institution, detected active mo¬ 
lecules in the eyes of fishes (vid. his Thesis “ De Oculi Anatomia Comparativa,” and Tr. 
R. Soc. Edin.) ; but Mr. Brown finding the molecules to exist in various animal and vege¬ 
table tissues, whether living or dead, at length became convinced that even common dust 
or soot is “ entirely composed of these (perhaps ultimate) molecules, possessing visible 
rapid, spontaneous, and inherent motion.” Certain sceptical philosophers have been in¬ 
clined to attribute these extraordinary appearances to vibration, external agitation, optical 
deception, or pre-existing animalcules ; but well knowing from personal experience the 
extreme fidelity and accuracy of our friend Mr. Brown, we shall only presume at present to 
conclude,— 
“ That things improbable may still be true.” E.) 
* (Conferred by Tournefort in honour of Lavater, a physician of Zurich j (not the 
physiognomist.) 33.) 
