AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA » 
389 
OF HORTICULTURE. 
Moths—continued. 
very much in their habits, some feeding exposed, others in 
rolled, or in mined leaves, or in clothes; and a good 
many make, and carry around, neat cases, for their 
protection from injury. Some kinds do considerable 
injury to the crops and to trees; but the Tineina, as 
a whole, are far more injurious to field crops than to 
gardens. The pupæ are usually protected, as in Tortricina, 
in a web, or cocoon, spun by the larvæ among their 
food. See Hawthorn Caterpillars. 
Pierophorina and Alucitina, or the Plume Moths, are 
small Moths, in which each wing is divided, lengthwise, into 
from two to six segments, or “ plumes,” resembling small 
feathers. They are of small size, and do little harm to 
cultivated plants, or to field produce in general. 
MOTTLED UMBER MOTH. See Hybernia. 
MOULD. This term is frequently used, very vaguely, 
to denote a large number of microscopic Fungi that agree 
in being filamentous in structure, and in having the 
spores usually borne on the tips of certain branches, 
sometimes scattered, at other times crowded in masses, 
the arrangements of which are of importance in affording 
means of distinguishing the various kinds of Moulds. The 
Fungi included under the name are exceedingly nume- 
rous, and belong to widely different groups. Many of 
them live on decaying remains of animals, or of plants 
that remain damp; indeed, it is scarcely possible to 
prevent their growth in food, clothes, and other house- 
hold articles in damp houses. But, in addition, many 
kinds also grow upon living plants, and are most de- 
structive at times in their attacks upon certain of them; 
e.g., Peronospora infestans, on Potatoes; P. gangliformis, 
on Lettuce, &. Only these latter kinds very greatly 
concern gardeners. The injurious kinds will be found 
treated of under the headings of the plants injured by them. 
Moulds are often divided into two groups, viz., the 
Black (Dematiei), having the threads dark because of 
thickened cell-membranes; and the White (Mucedines), 
which have no thick cell-membranes, and cannot always 
be clearly distinguished from the Mildews (see Mildew). 
It is to the White Moulds that the more harmful kinds 
belong, particularly to the genus Peronospora. A good 
many of the Moulds, we have reason to believe, are only 
earlier stages of Fungi that belong to groups more 
complex in structure when mature; whilst a consider- 
able number have the power of producing spores that, 
when lying in fluid which contains sufficient food, re- 
semble the Yeast Fungus in appearance, in the mode of 
forming new cells, and in causing fermentation in the 
fluid if it contains fermentable substances. Good 
ventilation, and prevention of overcrowding, are essential 
in diminishing the risk of injury from Moulds to green- 
house subjects. Direct applications to plants containing 
parasites inside their tissues are useless, since the 
parasite cannot be reached, and the host-plant itself 
suffers. It is advisable to destroy diseased plants by 
fire, if practicable; and seed should not be taken from 
these. Plants of dry soils are less liable to damage 
from injury by Fungi than are those in damp situations. 
lastly, the healthier the subject, as distinct from mere 
luxuriance, the less likely will it be to suffer injury 
from the growth on it of Moulds. 
MOULDING, or EARTHING-UP. The process 
of adding or drawing soil round the base of certain 
plants, more especially kitchen garden crops, either for 
the purpose of blanching their stems, or for insuring a 
greater depth above the roots, and in the limited space 
occupied by them in comparison with the tops. Moulding, 
or Earthing-up, is invariably attended with good results 
when practised amongst Beans, all the plants of the 
Brassica tribe, Peas, Potatoes, &c. It is usually per- 
formed when the different subjects have become esta- 
i and are growing freely. 
MOUNTAIN ASH. See Pyrus Aucuparia. 
MOUNTAIN AVENS. A garden name of Dryas 
octopetala (which see). 
MOUNTAIN EBONY. See Bauhinia. 
MOUNTAIN HOLLY. See Nemopanthes. 
MOUNTAIN PARSLEY FERN. See Crypto- 
e. 
MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED. See Cerastium. 
MOUTAN PHONY. Se Pæonia Moutan. 
MOVING PLANT. See Desmodium gyrans. 
MOWING MACHINES. Se Lawn Mowers. 
MUCILAGE. A turbid, shiny fluid. 
MUCRO. A small, sharp point. 
MUCRONATE, MUCRONULATE. Abruptly 
terminated by a hard, sharp point. 
MUCUNA (its Brazilian name). Syns. Carpopogon, 
Macroceratides, Negretia, and Stizolobium. Including 
Macranthus. ORD. Leguminosæ. A genus comprising 
about twenty-two species of herbs, or tall or rarely 
short and erect twining shrubs, chiefly inhabiting tropical 
Asia and America, a few tropical African, and one from 
the Fiji Islands. Flowers purple, red, or greenish-yellow, 
showy, in axillary racemes. Leaves pinnate, trifoliolate, 
often stipellate. The species are but rarely seen under 
cultivation, except in botanic gardens. They are strong- 
growing climbers, requiring to be planted out in good 
loam, in some warm house, and the long shoots trained 
near the glass. Propagated by cuttings of half-ripened 
young wood, inserted under a bell glass, in bottom heat; 
or by seeds. The pods of M. pruriens and M. prurita 
afford the Cowage, Cowhage, or Cow-itch of the Materia 
Medica. 
M. imbricata (imbricated). AH. large; vexillum of corolla not 
half the length of the keel, varying from dirty white to purple; 
— z dark purple, shorter than the keel; keel cylindrical nearly — 
to the end, where it curves upwards and terminates in a sharp 
spiny point; racemes large, thyrsifo: ha ha the 
appearance of bunches of black grapes. e Sin. to 4in. > 
ut lin. broad, bent at the extremities, covered with w 
hairs, which turn black in ing. l. ternate, trifoliolate, nearl: 
* above, silvery (with hairs) and prominently — 
neath. India. Stove. (B. M. 4945, under name of M. 
The true M. prurita is altogether a different plant.) 
MUD PLANTAIN. See Heteranthera reni- 
formis. 
MUEHLENBECKEIA (named after Dr. H. G. Mueh- 
lenbeck, 1798-1845, a Swiss physician.) Syn. Sarcogonum. 
ORD. Polygonew. A genus comprising about fifteen 
species of greenhouse or hardy, often climbing, shrubs or 
sub-shrubs, natives of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific 
Islands, and extra-tropical South America, or the Andes. 
Flowers small, within ing fasciculate bracts; fas- 
cicles sometimes solitary in the axils, often in short, axil- 
lary or terminal, simple or paniculate, i or small 
racemes; perianth five-fid. Nut obtuse or acutely tri- 
gonal. Leaves alternate, petiolate, sometimes small and 
sub-orbiculate, sometimes large and cordate, deltoid, or 
sagittate. Only three species call for description in 
this work. M. complexa is a hardy climber of great 
beauty. It enjoys a sunny position, and well drained or 
sandy soil, and makes an effective subject for the upper 
and drier parts of the rockwork, where it forms a dense 
prostrate bush. In habit, it is dense and diffuse, and, 
from the distinct form and colour of its foliage, together 
with the graceful shape of the spray-like branches, it is 
most desirable and valuable for cutting purposes. All 
the species are propagated by cuttings, which should be 
taken in early summer, becoming thereby nicely rooted 
before winter sets in; the hardy ones may be put in 
any shady position out of doors (though a frame is pre- 
ferable), and the greenhouse species planted in pots in 
heat. 
M. 1 A. pink, small, in many: flowered, 
ed spikes. Nut black, trigonous. L zin. to 2in. long, 
petioled, cordate or broadly oblong and truncate at base, obtuse, 
