MOE 



379 



M N 



serves to freshen it for a time, and that talpa is known also in England as the 



the effects of such applications are ap 

 parent for only a limited period. Some 

 comparative experiments, however, 

 which were made sixteen years since, 

 on some poor, hungry, inert heath land 

 in Norfolic, have up to this time served 

 to demonstrate the error of such a con- 

 clusion. In these experiments, the 

 ground was marled with twenty cuhic 

 yards only per acre, and the same com- 

 post ; it was then planted with a proper 

 mixture of forest trees, and by the side 

 of it, a portion of the heath, in a state 

 of nature, was also planted with the 

 same mixture of deciduous and fir 

 trees. 



Sixteen years have annually served 



churr-worm, jarr-worm, eve chiirr, and 

 earth crab. It is, occasionally, very 

 destructive to culinary vegetables; 

 creeping under ground through holes 

 it digs. It attains a length of two 

 inches, is dark brown, and resembles 

 in most respects the common cricket. 

 Mr. Kollar thus describes its habits : — 

 " The female hollows out a place for 

 herself in the earth, about half a foot 

 from the surface, in the month of June, 

 and lays her eggs in a heap, which 

 often contains from two to three hun- 

 dred. They are shining yellowish 

 brown, and of the size and shape of a 

 grain of millet. This hollow place is 

 of the shape of a bottle gourd, two 



to demonstrate, by the luxuriance of ; inches long, and an inch deep, smooth 

 the marled wood, the permanent effects i within, and having on one side a wind- 

 produced by this mixture of soils. The | ing communication with the surface of 

 growth of the trees has been there ; the earth. The young, which are hatch- 

 rapid and permanent; but on the ad- I ed in July or August, greatly resemble 

 joining soil, the trees have been stunted j black ants, and feed, like the old ones. 



their growth, miserable in appear 

 ance, and profitless to their owner. 



" Another, but the least commonly 

 practiced mode of improving the staple 

 of a soil by earthy addition, is claying ; 

 a system of fertilizing, the good eti'ects 

 of which are much less immediately 

 apparent than chalking, and hence one 



on the tender roots of grass, corn, and 

 various culinary vegetables. They be- 

 tray their presence under the earth by 

 the withered decay of culinary vegeta- 

 bles in the garden. In October and 

 November they bury themselves deep- 

 er in the earth, as a protection from 

 cold, and come again to the surlace in 



of the chief causes of its disuse. It | the warmer days in March. Their pre- 



rcquires some little time to elapse, and 

 some stirring of the soil, before the 

 clay is so well mixed with a sandy soil, 

 as to produce that general increased 

 attraction and retentive power for the 

 atmospheric moisture, which ever con- 

 stitutes the chief good result of claying 

 poor soils. Clay must be moreover ap- 

 plied in rather larger proportions to the 

 soil tlian chalk ; for not only is its ap- 

 plication rarely required as a direct 

 food for plants for the mere alumina 

 which it contains ; since this earth en- 

 ters into the composition of plants in 

 very small proportion, but there is also 

 another reason for a more liberal addi- 

 tion of clay being required, which is 

 the impure state in which the alumina 

 exists in what are commonly called clay 

 soils." — Farm. Encyc. 



M E R H I N G I A , Two species. 



sence is discovered by their throwing 

 up the earth like moles. 



" The surest and most efficacious of 

 remedies is, without doubt, destroying 

 the brood in June or July. Practised 

 gardeners know from experience where 

 the nest of the mole cricket is situated ; 

 tliey dig it out with their spades, and 

 destroy hundreds in the egg state with 

 little trouble." — KoUar. 



MOLINERIA plicata. Stove herba- 

 ceous perennial. Division. Peat and 

 loam. 



MOLUCCA BALM. Moluccella. 



MOLUCCELLA. Three species. 

 Hardy annuals. M. tuberosa,a. tuberous- 

 rooted perennial. Seeds. Common soil. 



MONACIIANTHUS. Monk's-jlower. 

 Four species. Stove epiphytes. Divi- 

 sion. Wood. 



MONARDA. Seven species. Hardy 



Hardy herbaceous perennials. Division. , herbaceous perennials. Division. Coni- 

 Sand, loam, and peat. 



MOIST STOVE. See Stove. 



MOLDAV' I.\N BALM. DracoccpAa- I green shrub. Cuttings. Loam and peat. 



mon soil. 



MONETIA harlerioides. Stove cver- 



lum moldavicum. 

 MOLE CRICKET. 



MONEYWORT. 

 Gryllus gryllo- j laria. 



Dioscorea nummu- 



