THE MUSK MALLOW.

Malva; L. La mauve; Fr. Die malve; Ger. Maluwe; Dutch. Malva; Ital. and Sp.

Nor will the breast where fancy glows,

Deem every flower a weed, that blows
Amid the desert plain.

SHENSTONE.

ONE of the commonest, and certainly not the least beautiful of our wild flowers, is the Field Mallow (Malva sylvestris), which, from the beginning of May until a late period of the autumn, is seen on the borders of roads and fields in almost every part of Britain. We greatly admire its blossoms, which are of a delicate reddish purple, though occasionally varying to a white, or even to a bluish tinge, with a few darker streaks of colour running from the base to the outer edge of the petals. Its flowers are not more beautiful than fragile, for they fade and wither very quickly after they are severed from the plant on which they grow; and it is seldom that we can restore them by artificial means to any degree of freshness.

The stems of the Mallow are generally erect, and of an herbaceous nature. The handsome leaves, which have seven acute lobes, are roundish and plaited, the margin of the lobes being slightly notched; those which grow nearer the summit of the stem are angular at the extremity, and cut only into three or five lobes. The flowers grow in clusters from the axils of the leaves. The petals are long and somewhat heart-shaped, with longitudinal veins of a deeper colour than that of the

H

flowers generally. The whole plant is rough and hairy. A thick emollient fluid is obtained from it by maceration.

The Dwarf Mallow (M. rotundifolia) is a very pretty species, growing with its stem prostrate, with downy leaves rather more heart-shaped than the preceding. It is frequent in some districts, on waste ground by the road sides and footpaths. The flowers spring from the axils of the leaves, and are rose-coloured, yet sometimes found purple or white. This species is a doubtful annual.

The remaining indigenous species will, however, obtain the favour of the fair more readily than either of the two we have described, for it is scented with a delicate musky odour; and this species we have chosen to represent in our group, not because it is more beautiful than the other, but because it is more certain of becoming generally a "favourite " field flower; yet we cannot admit this without bearing our testimony to the matchless beauty of every flower that blooms upon the earth. The more familiar we become with the paltry weeds which open their blossoms to the eye of day alone, the more do we admire each little floweret that we find in the fields, or on the barren hills and cliffs. How delighted were we only a few days ago with the tiny white flowers of the heath, blooming upon the chalky hills, with some pretty diminutive species of the wild geranium, elegant miniature labiate flowers with beautifully spotted lip, and a splendid specimen of the clustered Bell-flower (Campanula glomerata), the only one we have seen this year; but alas! before we reached home its beauty, and that of several others we had gathered, was faded. But, except the Bell-flower, they might be all classed

among weeds, as doubtless they are by the cultivator of

the soil.

How many plants, we call them weeds,

Against our wishes grow;

And scatter wide their various seeds
To all the winds that blow.

Man grumbles when he sees them rise
To foul his husbandry;

Kind Providence this way supplies

His lesser family.

Scattered, but small, they 'scape the eye,

But are not wasted there;

Safe they in clefts and furrows lie;

The little birds find where.

WORDSWORTH.

The Musk Mallow (M. moschata) is not seldom to be found by the waysides and on field borders in gravelly soils. It has a tough and somewhat woody root, and an erect partially branched stem. The radical leaves have long footstalks, with rounded limbs, variously cut into lobes. The stem leaves are more deeply lobed and cut than these, so that they appear to be pinnatifid. The flowers are usually rose coloured.

The musk-like odour which this plant emits, and on account of which it has received its specific name (moschata), is very faint. Professor Henslow says that he never observed it; but in the evening and early in the morning it is very perceptible.

The Musk Mallow closes its petals at sunset, as many other flowers do. Lord Bacon condescended to make some observations on this property in flowers, which, as they are very philosophical and exceedingly

quaint, we quote here; they are taken from his "Sylva Sylvarum." "It is manifest that some flowers have two respects to the sun, the one by opening and shutting, the other by bowing and inclining their heads: for most flowers open their leaves when the sun shines clear, and in some measure close them, either towards night or when the sky is overcast. Of this there needs no such solemn reason as that plants rejoice in the presence and mourn in the absence of the sun; the cause being no more than a little moisture of the air, which loads the leaves, and swells them at the bottom, whereas the dry air expands them. The plants that bow and incline the head are the great Sunflower, Mallow-flowers, &c. The cause of this is somewhat more obscure than the former, but I take it to be no other than that the part against which the sun beats grows more weak and flaccid in the stalk, and then becomes less able to support the flower."

Few bards have sung of the Mallow, but the fair authoresses of the "Bouquet des Souvenirs" have given us a few verses which we must not omit.

No flower is this of fiery hue,
Nor golden tint it bears;
It boasts not of cerulean blue,

Nor pearly whiteness wears;

Yet who can despise the sweet tints of this flower,
Though it deck not the lawn, nor adorn lady's bower?

Yet only in the shade of night

It sends its fragrance forth,

As though it deemed no earthly light
Were conscious of its worth;

So it bends its head low, as it wafts it away

Ere the star of the morn tells the breaking of day.

There's nought beneath the vault of heaven,

That we may useless deem;

E'en to this plant a moral's given,

Though simple it may seem;

Emblem of meekness! Oh! who doth not hallow

The bright green leaf of the musk-scented Mallow?

The Mallow is in the Linnæan class Monodelphia and order Polyandria; and in the Natural order, of which itself is the type, Malvacea.