as
been long-used as a culinary vegetable, its young shoots being
boiled, or taken in salad, or pickled.

The French know it as _Bugrane_, beloved by goats, and the chief
delight of donkeys, who rejoice to roll themselves amid its prickles.
Simon Pauli _ne connait pas de meilleur remede contre le calcul des
reins, et de la vessie_. "_Anjourdhui l'arr ete boeuf est a peu pres
abandonne_." "_On y reviendra!_" The plant contains "ononin," a
chemical glucoside, which is demulcent to the urinary organs.

Its botanical name of _Glycyrrhiza_ comes from the Greek words,
_glukus_, "sweet," and _riza_, "a root." English Liquorice root,
when dried, is commercially used in two forms, the peeled and the
unpeeled. By far and away the best lozenges are those of our [322]
boyhood, still attributed to one "Smith," in the Borough of London.

MALLOWS.

All the Mallows (_Malvaceoe_) to the number of a thousand, agree
in containing mucilage freely, and in possessing no unwholesome
properties.

Their family name "Mallow" is derived from the Greek _malassein_,
"to soften," as alluding to the demulcent qualities of these
mucilaginous plants. The Common Mallow is a well-known roadside
plant, with large downy leaves, and streaked trumpet-shaped
purple flowers, which later on furnish round button-like
seeds, known to the rustics as "pickcheeses" in Norfolk and
elsewhere, whilst beloved by schoolboys, because of their nutty
flavour, and called by them "Bread and Cheese."

Clare tells playfully of the fairies, borne by mice at a gallop:--

"In chariots lolling at their ease,
Made of whate'er their fancies please,
With wheels at hand of Mallow seeds,
Which childish sport had strung as beads."

And recalls the time when he sat as a boy:--

"Picking from Mallows, sport to please,
The crumpled seed we called a cheese."

Both this plant and its twin sister, the Marsh Mallow (_Althoea
hibiscus_, from _altho_, to cure), possess medicinal virtues, which
entitle them to take rank as curative Herbal Simples. The Sussex
peasant knows the Common Mallow as "Maller," so that "aller and
maller" means with him Alehoof (Ground Ivy) and Mallow. Pliny
said: "Whosoever shall take a spoonful of the [323] Mallows shall
that day be free from all diseases that may come to him."

This plant is often named "Round Dock," and was formerly called
"Hock Herb": our Hollyhock being of the Mallow tribe, and first
brought to us from Chin