I >) 



MARE. 



MARSUPIATA 



A distinct stem, and in their fruit not being 4-valved. Marchantia 

 itself, a common plant tinder the north side of old walls and hedges, 

 upon damp ground, forma deep green patches with a lobed lichenoid 

 thallus, anil has reproductive organs of two kinds arranged separately 

 below mushroom-shaped heads ; one of them appears to be male and 

 the other female. None of the species are of any known use. 



Eudlicher separates the order into four, with the following dis- 

 tinctive characters : 



1. Ketiaeeee. Frondose. Involucre none. Capsules bursting irre- 

 gularly. Elaters none. Aquatics. 



2. Anlhocerotea. Froudose or leafy. Involucre none. Capsules 

 ]-2-valved, with a central columella, Elaters. 



3. Targioniacete. Frondose. Involucre heterogeneous. Capsules 

 opening by teeth. Elaters. 



4. Marchantiacect. Frondose. Both involucre and iuvolucel. 

 Capsules various, opening irregularly by teeth. Elaters. Flowers 

 capitate. 



MAKE. [EQUIDJ,.] 



MARE'S-TAIL. [HALORAGACIM: ; HIPPURIS.] 



MAKECA. [DUCKS.] 



MAREKAX1TE. [OBSIDIAN.] 



MARGARIN, a peculiar fatty matter contained iu vegetable oils, 

 and also in animal fats, as mutton-suet and hog's-lard : when these 

 liave been treated with ether, for the purpose of obtaining stearin 

 from them, the ethereal liquors, by spontaneous evaporation, deposit 

 a portion of the solid matter which they contain, and this is to be 

 collected on a linen cloth, strongly pressed, and then exposed for a 

 long time to the heat of a salt-water bath. This substance is very 

 soluble in cold ether, which distinguishes it from stearin. It appears 

 probable however that by boiling in alkaline solutions it is converted 

 into stearic acid ; but additional experiments are required to determine 

 its nature with precision. [OIL; ADIPOSE TISSCE.] 



MARGARI'TA, Dr. Leach's name for the Concha margaritifera, or 



' Pfrlarum, Mytilut margaritiftrus of Linnceus, Meleagrina 



margaritifera of Lamarck. [AVICULA.] , 



MARGARITA'CEA, M. De Blainville'a name for his third family 

 of Lamellibranchiata. This family comprises the genera Vuleella, 

 Malleus, Perna, Crenatula, Inoccramus, Catdliu, Pitlrinitei, (ifrrillia, 

 and Aricula. [AvicoLA; MALI.EACEA.] 



MARGARITE. [MICA.] 



MARGARODITE. [MICA.] 



MARGINELLA. [VOLUTID.B.] 



MARGINOPORA. [MILLEFOBID*:.] 



MARIGOLD. [CALENDULA.] 



MARIGOLD, MARSH. [CALTHA.] 



MARIMONDA. [ATELES.] 



MARJORAM, an aromatic potherb used in cookery, especially 

 among the French. It is the Origanum Majorana of Linmeu?, or 

 Majorana hortemit of Mconch, a native of Barbary and the Himalaya 

 Mountains. In gardens it is little better than au annual : in a wild 

 state it is a suffruticose perennial. [ORIGANUM.] 



MARL. A mixture of calcareous and argillaceous earth is com- 

 monly called Marl ; in Norfolk soft chalk used on the lands is called 

 Marl ; in Worcestershire and Somersetshire red clays are termed 

 Marls. In geoloiry we have the Red Marl, the Black Marl at the base 

 of the lias, the Chalk Marl, the Fresh-Water Marls of Headon Hill in 

 the Me.of Wight. The term is too vague for scientific descriptions. 

 It is a useful substance in agriculture. [MARL, in ABTS AND Sc. Div.J 



MARLSTONK Sandy, calcareous, and irony strata, which divide 

 the upper from the lower Lias Clays, are thus designated. [GEOLOGY.] 

 This mass of rocks is nowhere so well developed as in Yorkshire and 

 Leicestershire. 



MAKMATITE, a name for Blende. [ZlNC.] 



MARMOLITE, a Mineral consisting of Silicate of Magnesia, occurs 

 massive. Its structure is columnar, irregularly intersecting. Columnar 

 portions foliated, having a cleavage in two directions intersecting each 

 other. Colour grayish and greenish. Hardness 35. Lustre pearly. 

 Translucent, opaque. Specific gravity 2'47. Found at Hoboken, New 

 Jersey, and the Bare Hills, near Baltimore, United States. Analysis 

 by Nuttall : 



Silica 



Magnesia 



Lime ....... 



Water . 



36 

 46 

 2 

 15 



99 



MARMOSET. [QUADKUMANA.] 



MARMOT. [RoDEKTiA.] 



MARRAM. [PsAMMA.] 



MARROW, or MEDULLA, i the fat contained in the osseous 

 tubes and cells of the bones. [BONE.] It consists of an oily fluid, 

 contained in minute vesicles, which are usually collected into bunches 

 and inclosed in spaces surrounded by bony walls. It is most abund- 

 ant in the cavities of the long bones, and in the spongy tissue of their 

 articular extremities, and of the short rounded bones. 



Spinal Marrow and Medulla Spinalis are names sometimes applied 

 to the Bpinul chord. [NERVES.] 



MARRU'UIUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Lamiacert, or Labiata:. It has a tubular cnlyx 5- to 10-nerved, equal, 



HAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. III. 



with 5 or 10 acute spiny teeth ; corolla with the upper lip erect, the 

 lower spreading and trifitl, with the middle lobe broader and generally 

 emarginate ; stamens didynamous, inclosed ; anthers with divaricating 

 somewhat confluent lobes, all nearly of the same form ; style with 

 short obtuse lobes. 



M. vulyare, White Horehound, is a biennial or perennial herbaceous 

 plant, common by roadsides. The stem is bushy, branching from 

 the bottom, bluntly quadrangular; leaves ovate and attenuated into a 

 petiole, or roundish, cordate, crenate, hoary, rough ; whorls many, 

 flowered ; calyx-teeth 10, subulate, recurved, patent, woolly below, 

 their upper half glabrous ; the flowers are white, in dense convex 

 whorls. The ofEcinal part is the leaves ; these are to be collected 

 without the stiilks. They are of a whitish-gray woolly appearance, 

 possessed of a faint odour, which becomes less by drying, and a bitter 

 sharp taste. Ten pounds of leaves yield four pounds of extract. Their 

 chief constituents are a bitter extractive, with a volatile oil, and 

 probably some astringent matter. 



White Horehound, when young, ia apt to be confounded with many 

 other labiate plants, particularly the Ballota nigra, or Black Hore- 

 hound, which possesses a disagreeable odour. The medicinial pro- 

 perties of Horehound are very insignificant, being demulcent, slightly 

 tonic, and astringent. As a popular remedy it enjoys great favour 

 in many pulmonary complaints ; but the preparations vended under 

 the name of Horehound often contain more efficient ingredients, to 

 which they owe their success. 



MARSH-MALLOW. [ALTH.EA.] 



MARSH-MARIGOLD. [CALTHA.] 



MARSILEACE^E, orRHIZOCARPE.E, Pepperworts or Rhizocarps, 

 a natural order of Aquatic Plants, with creeping stems bearing leaves, 

 which are usually divided into three or more cuneate portions, and 

 have a circinate vernation. The fructification is produced at the base 

 of the leaf-stalks, and consists of sporocarps and involucres inclosing 

 clustered organs, which consist of antheridian and pistillidian cells. 

 The germinating body has an oval form, and occasionally a mammilla 

 on one side, whence roots and leaves proceed. The species are all 

 inhabitants of ditches or inundated places. They do not appear to be 

 affected so much by climate as by situation ; thus they have been 

 detected in various parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, chiefly 

 however in temperate latitudes. Their position ia between Lycopodi- 

 acece smdJungermanniacea. The species number about20, the principal 

 of which are Pilularia, Manilea, Azolla, and Salrinia. (Balfour, 

 Class-Book of Botany.) 



MARSUPIA'TA, or MARSUPIA'LIA (marsupium, & purse or bag), 

 an extensive group of Mammalia, differing essentially from all the 

 others in their organisation, and comprehending genera fed by every 

 variety of nourishment. Their structure is, as a necessary consequence, 

 modified accordingly ; and we find among them an adaptation of the 

 orgaus of progression, prehension, and digestion, to their several 

 wants and habits, so that we may trace in them analogies to the 

 carnivorous insectivorous, herbivorous, and rodent forms of the other 

 Mammalia. 



The first> species belonging to this abnormal or aberrant group 

 brought under the notice of zoologists were those of America, and they 

 received from Scaliger the appropriate name of Animal ia crumenata, 

 or Purse-bearing Animals ; for the leading peculiarity in these Marsu- 

 pials is, so to speak, the premature birth of their young, which are 

 born in a state of development not much beyond that of the foetu" in 

 the other groups at a very early stage of pregnancy, and attach them- 

 selves by the mouth to the teats, which are situated in the marsupium, 

 or pouch, of the mother ; and in this nidus, or, as it may be termed, 

 second uterus, the almost embryotie young one is nourished till the 

 little knobs that marked the place of the extremities shoot out into 

 limbs, and till the whole framework of the animal is completed, and 

 it is able to go alone. Long after this period it flies to the pouch 

 upon the approach of danger, or enters it when fatigued, and may 

 often be seen peeping out to ascertain whether it is safe to venture 

 abroad again. 



Linnaeus, who appears only to have known the American species, or 

 Opossums, arranges them tinder the generic appellation of Didetphis, 

 in his order Ferae, placing them between the Bears, Badgers, Racoons, 

 &c., and the Moles (Talpa). 



Cuvier, who had the advantage of knowing the great quantity of 

 species and variety of forms discovered in Australia, arranged the 

 copious materials which that extraordinary country afforded in 

 addition to the few American forms, as the fourth order of his Mam- 

 miferes, dividing the now numerous group into several subdivisions, 

 and placing the order between his Camaasiers and hia Jiodcnlia. 



Illiger makes the Marsupialia the sixth family of his second order, 

 Pollicata; and his third order, Salientia, consists of the Kangaroos 

 and Potoroos. 



M. De Blainville divides the Mammiferes into two sub-classes ; the 

 first being the Monadelphes and the second the Didelphes, which last 

 consists of the Marsujiialia and Monotremes, properly so called ; we 

 say properly so called, because, strictly speaking, every Marsupial 

 female is a Monotreme. 



Dr. J. E. Gray collects all the forms under the family Diddphida. 

 [MAMMALOGY.] 



Storr congregates all Mammalia with opposeable thumbs into one 



2 Y 



