s ( 6 7 l )
M A L V A fylveftris.
Common M allow .
MONADELPHIA Polyandria.
Gen. Char. Cal. double ; the outermoft of three
leaves. Seed-cafes numerous, circularly arranged.
Seeds folitary.
Sp e c . C h a r . Stern upright, herbaceous. Leaves with
feven fharpifh lobes. Leaf-flalks and flower-
ftalks hairy.
Syn. Malva fylveftris. Linn. Sp. PI. 9^9* Hudf.
307. TVith. 613. Hull. 155. Relh. 2,65. Sibth.
215. Abbot. 151. Curt. Lond. fafc. 2. t. 51.
Woodv. Med. Bot. t. 54.
M. vulgaris. Rail Syn. 251.
T H E common Mallow, fo plentiful by road tides and in all
watte places, needs little botanical illuftration. Its upright
buthy Item, and large purple flowers, which are produced in
the greateft probation, fufficiently ditlinguith it from the almoft
equally common M. rotundifolia. It is perennial, and may be
found in bloflom from May to September.
The root is fpindle-thaped, branched, whitith. Stem very
much branched and fpreading, round, hairy. Leaves alternate,
on foot-ftalks, heart-thaped, plaited, roughith, divided
into 7 crenate lobes; the upper ones are mod deeply and
tharply lobed. Flower-ftalks cluttered, hairy, tingle-flowered.
Calyx hairy. Petals inverfely heart-thaped, three or four times
as long as the calyx, of a full rofe-colour veined with deeper
purple, fmooth and Aiming, as is alfo the column of the fta-
mina. Pollen whitith, large, as in all this tribe.
The whole herb, efpecially the root, abounds with a pure
mucilage, and pofleffes the emollient qualities of the Marth
Mallow, Altboea, though perhaps in an inferior degree. It
has however the advantage of being much more common, and
within every-body’s reach.