This is accurately true of the common mallow, the root of which is perennial, so that the stems grow up and die down again every year. Accordingly Theophrastus brings it as an
example of a plant with annual stems[1]. Horace in two passages signifies his partiality to mallows, calling them "leves," light to digest.
Let olives be my food, endive, and mallows light. Od. l. i. 31. v. 16.
Mallows, salubrious to a frame o'er-filled. Epod. 2. 57.
Martial recommends this vegetable on account of its laxative effect:
Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis. (iii. 47.)
Exoneratarus ventrem mihi villica malvas Attulit, et varias, quas habet hortus, opes. (x. 48.)
Diphilus of Siphnos (as quoted by Athenæus, l. ii. p. 58. E. Casaub.), after enumerating the medical virtues of the Common Mallow, says, that "the wild was better than the cultivated kind." Without quoting other classical authorities, the ancient practice may be illustrated by the observations of modern travellers, who mention that the Common Mallow is still an article of consumption in the same parts of the world. Biddulph, who visited Syria about the year 1600, says, he "saw near Aleppo many poor people gathering mallows, and three-leaved grass, and asked them what they did with it, and they answered, that it was all their food, and that they boiled it, and did eat it." (Collection of Voyages and Travels from the Library of the E. of Oxford, p. 807.) Dr. Sibthorp states, that the Malva Silvestris grows wild in Cyprus, and is called [Greek: Molôcha]. He also says, "The wild mallow is very common about Athens: the leaves are boiled and eaten as a pot-herb, and an ingredient in the Dolma." (Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edited by Walpole, p. 245.) Dr. Holland mentions both Malva Silves-*
- ↑ Hist. Plant. l. vii. c. 8. p. 142. Heinsii. 240. Schneider.
