Common Mallow.
Also see: Common Mallow - Marsh Mallow - Vervain Mallow - Musk Mallow
Malva.
A wild plant, every where about our hedges, fields, and gardens. It is one among many instances, that God has made the most useful plants, the most common. The mallow grows three or four feet high. The stalk is round, thick and strong. The leaves are roundish, but indented and divided at the edges. The flowers are numerous, large, and red. The root is long and white, of a firm, tough substance, and not disagreeable taste.
The whole plant is used, but the root has most virtue. The leaves dried, or fresh, are put in decoctions for glisters; and the root may be dried, for it retains a great deal of virtue, but it is best fresh, and should be chosen when there are only leaves growing from it, not a stalk. It is to be boiled in water, and the decoction may be made very strong, for there is nothing disagreeable in the taste: it is to be drank in quantities, and is excellent to promote urine, and to take off the strangury. It is good also in the same manner against sharp humours in the bowels, and for the gravel.
There is a little kind of mallow, that has whitish flowers, and lies flat upon the ground. This is of a more pleasant taste than the common mallow, and has the same virtues. A tea made of the roots and tops of this, is very agreeable to the taste, and is excellent for promoting the discharges by urine.
