COMMON NAME. High-mallow.
    MEDICINAL PART. The herb.
    Description. -- This plant is a perennial, and has a round stem two or three feet high, and a tapering, branching, whitish root. The leaves are alternate, deep green, soft, and downy. The flowers are large, numerous, and of purple color; calyx five-cleft; petals five; stamens indefinite; pollen large, whitish.
    History. -- The mallow is a native of Europe, but is naturalized in this country. It grows abundantly in fields, waysides, and waste places, and flowers from May to October. The whole plant, especially the root, abounds in mucilage.
    Properties and Uses. -- It possesses the properties common to mucilaginous herbs, and an infusion thereof forms an excellent demulcent in coughs, irritations of the air-passages, flux, affections of the kidney and bladder, etc. In inflammatory conditions of the external parts, the bruised herb forms an excellent application, making, as it does, a natural emollient cataplasm.
    MALVA ROTUNDIFOLIA, or Low-mallow, called by children, who are fond of eating the fruit, cheeses, possesses similar qualities.