[Greek: Népioi, oud' isasin hosô pleon hêmisy pantos,
Oud' hoson en malachê te kai asphodelô meg' oneiar.]—Op. et Dies, 41.
Fools! not to know how much more the half is than the whole, and how much benefit there is in mallows and asphodel.
A dish of these vegetables was probably the cheapest of all
kinds of food; they grew wild in the meadow and by the way-*side,
and were gathered and dressed without any labor or
trouble.
Various authors however mention the cultivation of the Common Mallow in gardens. See Virgil, Moretum, 73. Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. xix. c. 22 and 31. Isidori Orig. l. xvii. c. 10. Papiæ Vocabular. v. Malva. Geoponica, xii. l. Palladuis, iii. 24. xi. ll.
Dioscorides (l. ii. c. III.) calls it the Garden Mallow. Aristophanes (Plutus 544.) mentions eating the shoots of mallows instead of bread, intending by this to represent a vile and destitute kind of living. Plutarch (Septem Sapientum Convivium) says, "The mallow is good for food, and the Anthericus is sweet." According to Le Clerc [Greek: ho antherikos] (Anthericus) means the scapus of the asphodel: if he is right, this plant was eaten as we now eat asparagus. It is also remarkable that on this supposition Plutarch mentions the same two plants, which are also mentioned together by Hesiod.
According to Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. vii. 7. 2.) the mallow was not eaten raw, as in a salad, but required to be cooked. Cicero (Epist. ad Fam. vii. 26.) mentions the highly-seasoned vegetables at a dinner given by his friend Lentulus. Having been made ill by them, he says, that he, "who easily abstained from oysters and lampreys, had been deceived by beet and mallows." Probably the leaves of the mallow were on this occasion boiled, chopped, and seasoned, much in the same way as spinach is now prepared in France.
Moschus in the following well-known lines refers to the common mallow together with other culinary vegetables:
[Greek: Li, ai, tai malachai men, epan kata kapon olôntai,
Êde ta chlôra selina, to t' euthales houlon anêthon,
Hysteron au zôonti, kai eis etos allo phyonti.]
Mallows, alas! die down, and parsley, and flourishing fennel;
Then they spring up afresh, and live next year in the garden.
