ge 
AN ENCYCLOPADIA 
OF HORTICULTURE. 317 
Mahurea continued. 
It thrives in a compost of sandy peat and fibry loam. 
Propagated, during summer, by cuttings of half-ripened 
shoots, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in gentle 
bottom heat. : 
M. palustris (marsh-loving}. fl. purplish, terminal, racemose, 
hardly lin. in diameter. May. J. oblong, coriaceous, entire, full of 
pellucid dots. x. 15ft. 1820, 
MAIANTHEMUM (from maios, May, and anthemon, 
a blossom; in allusion to the flowering period of the 
plant). Sywns. Bifolium, Maia, Sciophylla, and Styrandra. 
ORD. Liliacee. A monotypic genus, the species being a 
hardy erect, glabrous or puberulous, bulbous plant, with 
a slender, creeping rootstock. For culture, see Smila- 
cina. 
M. bifolium (two-leaved). fl. white; perianth scarcely one line 
long ; raceme somewhat dense, twelve to thirty-flowered ; pedicels 
solitary or twin, very slender, articulated at apex. May. l. two, 
placed above the middle of the stem, petiolate, cordate-ovate, 
membranous, persistent, 2in. to Sin. long, acute, costate, 
thickly veined. h. din. to 8in. North temperate regions (Britain). 
Syns. Convallaria bifolia (B. M. 510; F. D. 291), Smilacina bi- 
Jolia, and S. canadensis. $ 
MAIDENHAIR. The common name for Adiantum 
Capillus-Veneris (which see). 
MAIDENHAIR-TREE. See Ginkgo. 
MAIDEN PINK. See Dianthus deltoides. 
MAIDEN PLUM. See Comocladia. 
MAIDEN TREE. A term applied to an untrained 
fruit tree the first year after being worked. 
MATRIA (so called after Professor le Maire, of Ghent, 
who collected this plant at the Cape). ORD. Composite. 
A genus containing ten species of half-hardy or green- 
house herbs or sub-shrubs, all natives of South Africa. 
Flower-heads intermediate or rather large; ray-florets 
purplish, rose, or pink; disk-florets yellow; involucre 
campanulate or hemispherical; receptacle flat, naked. 
Leaves radical or alternate. The species succeed in a 
compost of turfy loam and peat, and require an abundance 
of moisture at nearly all times. Propagated, in spring, 
by divisions; or by seeds, sown in a cold frame. Probably 
the only species yet introduced is the one here described. 
M. crenata l -i itary, lin. to 1Jin. in diameter, 
with a right purple Gx ana pa ioe a N rising from 
lin. to Gin. from the centre of the rosette. April. l. in a dense 
rosette, deep green, fleshy, oblong-ovate in outline, tapering 
at the base into a petiole; margins distantly toothed. Plant 
stemless. 1820. Greenhouse or half-hardy. (B. R. 855, under 
name of Gerberia crenata.) 
MAIZE. See Zea Mays. 
MAJORANA. Included under Origanum (which 
see), 
MALABAILA (named after Count Malabaila von 
Canal, a former Director of the Botanic Gardens at 
Prague). Syn. Leiotulus. ORD. Umbellifere. A genus 
comprising about half-a-score species of hardy perennial, 
often glabrous herbs, similar in habit to Peucedanum, but 
with broader leaves. They are natives of South-eastern 
Europe, Eastern Africa, and Western Asia. Flowers 
yellowish, in compound, many-rayed umbels; calyx teeth 
obsolete or minute; petals rather broad, acuminate, in- 
flexed (often obtuse or retuse). Involucral bracts few or 
none. Fruit orbiculate or rarely obovate, flat, compressed. 
Leaves pinnate or pinnately decompound ; segments often 
broad, incised-toothed. Seeds of the undermentioned 
species should be sown in the open ground, in spring. 
Opoponax , petals roundish, entire, involute ; 
sy very on Jane 2 Fay. fr. girded by 3 convex 
„ y beneath, Sheaths at the flowering 
haceous, and sometimes destitute of leaves. h. 6ft. 
South Europe, 1640. SYNS. Opop _Chir , Pastinaca 
. wane 1 1 Aenrer in S. F. G. 288), 7 
pinellæfolia (Pimpinella-leav „ petals slight! 
p E emsa ne el gr pro naa eee of 
— 
2. 
Malabaila continued. 
four or five leaves, dimidiate, deciduous. July and August. 
fr. orbicular. “. bipinnatifid, pubescent ; segments cuneated, 
deeply serrated, lower ones refiexed, u per ones linear-lanceo- 
late. Stem angular, branched. A. 2ft. Caucasus, &c., 1818. 
MALABAR LEAF. A common name of Cinna- 
momum Malabathrum, 
MALACHADENIA. 
phyllum. 
MALACHODENDRON. Included under Stuartia 
(which see), 
MALACHRA (name used by Pliny to denote a Per- 
sian tree). ORD. Malvacee, A genus comprising five or 
six species of stoye hispid herbs, all indigenous to the 
warmer parts of America, one or two being also broadly 
dispersed over the warmer parts of Asia and Africa. 
Flowers yellow, white, or rose, in dense, axillary or terminal 
heads, with leafy involucral bracts; calyx five-toothed or 
cut; column shorter than the stamens. Leaves angular 
or lobed. The species are of no great horticultural value. 
M. fasciata requires to be raised from seed, in a hot- 
house, and, when large enough, to be placed singly into 
small pots. 
M. fasciata (fasciate). fl. rose; heads shortly pedunculate, 
three-leaved, about  five-flowered. August and September. 
l almost round, obsoletely lobed. Stems villous. A. lft. 
Caraccas, 1819. (B. R. 467.) 
MALACOCARPUS (from malakos, soft, and karpos, 
a fruit; alluding to the juicy fruits). ORD. Cactea. 
This genus, now included, by Bentham and Hooker, under 
Echinocactus, is composed of the smooth-fruited species 
of that genus (which see for culture), 
Included under Bulbo- 
FIG. 504. MALACOCARPUS ERINACEUS. 
. erinaceus (prickly). fl. straw-coloured, when in bud 
* with long silky brown hairs. Summer. ee nearly 
bullet-shaped, very slightly depressed at top, with eigl 2 more 
or less spirally-curved ribs. Spines on young individuals, yellow ; 
on older ones horn-like, brownish ; eight or ten (seldom more) 
outer ones, and a efect one, Brazil. See Fig. 504, 
for which we are indebted to Herr Fr. Ad. Haage, jun., of Erfurt, 
Germany. a 
MALACOID. Having a mucilaginous texture. 
MALAXIS (from malazis, tenderness; in allusion 
to the nature of the species). ORD. Orchidee. A 
monotypic genus. The species is a curious and in- 
teresting native orchid, rarely seen in cultivation. It 
grows naturally in spongy bogs, and would probably 
thrive if naturalised in similar situations. Propagated 
| by divisions of the roots. 
paludosa Joving). fl. greenish-yellow, small; lip 
* at s embracing the column; sepals ovate or 
broadly lanceolate; raceme long, slender, terminal. July. 
L from two to four, ovate, rough at the extremity. A. Sin. to din. 
Europe (Britain). (G. C. n. s., xxi. 144; Sy. En. B. 1489.) 
