M. sylvestris would have had to be accepted as an inferior substitute. Sugges-
tively, in the Isle of Man, where tree-mallow occurs locally in quantity, the
common mallow bore a name in Manx showing that it was regarded as
merely a small version of that.
Whether Malva sylvestris itself was available prehistorically, however, is a
matter of doubt, for everywhere in the British Isles it seems a follower of
humans and seldom if ever occurs in the kinds of habitat which might give it
a claim to be considered indigenous. Possibly some at least of its presence is
the result of its introduction at different times expressly for medicinal pur-
poses, for mallow held a prominent place in the learned tradition as well as in
the folk one. In the Roman levels of a site excavated near Glasgow, about ..
150, pollen clusters of this species have been found unaccompanied by any of
its seeds, suggesting that the flowers (and maybe other parts, which, unlike
those, leave no remains) were utilised medicinally^34 in obedience to Pliny,
who recommended a daily dose of the plant. Though mainly used for other
purposes, at least in the folk medicine of the British Isles, there is a record
from Norfolk of the fruits being chewed by children as a laxative,^35 while in
three English counties (Wiltshire,^36 Hampshire,^37 Durham^38 ) mallow has
been in repute as a general cleansant of the system. Both of those uses may be
dim echoes of Roman (or even pre-Roman) doctoring.
The Malvaceae have been prized in folk medicine for two applications
far above all others, one of them general, the other more specific. Of 153
records logged in this study for the three species in question, these two uses
account for 57 and 40, respectively. The general application was (and fre-
quently still is) as a soothing poultice for sores, cuts, bruises, ulcers, boils,
skin complaints and inflammation of any kind as well as to soften and dis-
perse swellings. including those in mumps and swollen glands. In Radnor-
shire^39 a ‘marsh-mallow’ poultice has been held to be a certain cure for a limb
that has become infected, while in Lincolnshire^40 Malva sylvestris has been
found so helpful in cases of blood-poisoning that it has been planted in gar-
dens as a stand-by. Usually the leaves, but sometimes the roots or even the
flowers, were pounded and mixed with lard or goose grease to produce an
ointment known in some areas as ‘marsh-mallow salve’. Intriguingly, species
of the family native to Africa are extensively used for this same purpose in
tribal medicine there—like the ability of plantain (Plantago) leaves to staunch
bleeding, this is evidently another group of plants valued for a particular
healing property in widely separated parts of the world, perhaps as a result of
quite independent discoveries. In the British Isles, mallow poultices feature in
108 Malva, Lavatera andAlthaea