It is also known as WYMOTE. This is a bushy,
leafy plant, two to four feet high, and covered with velvety down
as a protection against the clogging of its pores by the moisture
arising from its wet retreats. Plants that live in swamps must
"perspire" freely and keep their pores open. From the marsh
mallow's thick roots the mucilage used in confectionery is
obtained, a soothing demulcent long esteemed in medicine. Another
relative, the OKRA or GUMBO PLANT of vegetable gardens (Hibiscus
esculentus), has mucilage enough in its narrow pods to thicken a
potful of soup. Its pale yellow, crimson-centered flowers are
quite as beautiful as any hollyhock, but not nearly so
conspicuous, because of the plant's bushy habit of growth. In
spite of its name, the ALTHAEA of our gardens, or ROSE OF SHARON
(Hibiscus Syriacus), is not so closely allied to Althaea
officinalis as to the swamp rose-mallow.
Another immigrant from Europe and Asia sparingly naturalized in
waste places and roadsides in Canada, the United States, and
Mexico is the COMMON HIGH MALLOW, CHEESEFLOWER, or ROUND DOCK
(Malva sylvestris).
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