MALLOW  , botanically Malva, the typical genus of the natural

order Malvaceae, embracing about sixteen species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere . The mallows possess the reniform one- Mallow (Malva sylvestris) . Flower in section . 3 . Fruit with persistent calyx . 2 . Stamens showing the union 1, 2 and 5 enlarged . of the filaments into a 4 . Same seen from the back common tube (monadel- showing the 3-leaved epi- phous). calyx . 5 . Seed . celled anthers which specially characterize the Malvaceae (q.v.) .

The petals also are

united by their base to the tube formed by the coalesced filaments of the stamens . The special characters which separate the genus Malva from others most nearly allied to it are the involucre, consisting of a row of three separate bracts attached to the lower part of the true calyx, and the numerous single-seeded carpels disposed in a circle around a central axis, from which they become detached when ripe . The flowers are mostly white or pinkish, never yellow, the leaves radiate-veined, and more or less lobed or cut . Three species are natives of Britain . The musk mallow (Malva moschnta) is a perennial herb with five-partite, deeply-cut leaves, and large rose-coloured flowers clustered together at the ends of the branched stems, and is found growing along hedges and borders of fields, blossoming in July and August . It owes its name to a slight musky odour diffused by the plant in warm dry weather when it is kept in a confined situation . The round-leaved dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia) is a creeping perennial, growing in waste sandy places, with roundish serrate leaves and small pinkish-white flowers produced in the axils of the leaves from June to September . It is common throughout Europe and the north of Africa, extending to western and northern Asia . The common mallow (Malva sylvestris ), the mauve of the French, is an erect biennial or perennial plant with long-stalked roundish-angular serrate leaves, and conspicuous axillary reddish-purple flowers, blossoming from May to September . Like most plants of the order it abounds in mucilage, and hence forms a favourite domestic remedy for colds and sore throats . The aniline dye called mauve derives its name from its resemblance to the colour of this plant . The marsh mallow (Althaea officinalis), the guimauve of the French, belongs to another genus having an involucre of numerous bracts .

It is a native of marshy ground near the

sea or in the neighbourhood of saline springs . It is an erect perennial herb, with somewhat woody stems, velvety, ovate, acute, unequally serrate leaves, and delicate pink showy flowers blooming from July to September . The flowers are said to yield a good deal of honey to bees . The marsh mallow is remarkable for containing asparagin, C4H8N208,H20, which, if the root be long kept in a damp place, disappears, butyric acid being developed . The root also contains about 25 % of starch and the same quantity of mucilage, which differs from that of gum arabic in containing one molecule less of water and in being precipitated by neutral acetate of lead . It is used in pdte de guimauve lozenges . Althaea rosea is the hollyhock (q.v.) . The mallow of Scripture, Job xxx . 4, has been sometimes identified with Jew's mallow (Core/torus olitorius), a member of the closely allied order Tiliaceae, but more plausibly (the word nab; implying a saline plant) with Atriplex Halimus, or sea orache . In Syria the Halimus was still known by the name Malluh in the time of Ibn Beitar . See Bochart, Hieroz. in . 16 .