T31 



MASTODONSAUBTO. 



MAVIA. 



7SS 



synchronous with that from which Mr. Cnwfurd obtained the remains 

 nor Promt, on the bank* of the Irawaddi. Captain Cautley having 

 found jawi in which the front teeth are not to be distinguished from 

 the tcth of M. laiidau, and thoee in the rear from the teeth of M. 

 lltpkai9itla, he oonoeire* that the distinction which was established 

 on detached teeth will be found to be erroneous. 



The genus Tetraca*lodt/n of Qodmann is, according to the beat 

 authorities, the young of the Great Mastodon If. gigantou. One 

 ipsoiss only, TflratatUodon Mtutodontottleum (Qodmann), ia recorded. 

 (Harlan, Bull, dee Sc. Nat et de GeoL,' 1830.) 



We subjoin Profeeaor Owen's remarks on the comparative age of 

 the various ipecies of Mastodon : 



" From the age assigned to the fluvio-mariue crag, and to some of 

 the continental formations from which remains of the Maitodon 

 nyiiiri</CTU have been obtained, it would seem that this species pre- 

 ceded the Mammoth hi Europe, and was of older date than the 

 Hatlodon giyantetu of North America. No remains of the Elephat 

 frimiyr*i<a at least have hitherto been discovered in the Miocene or 

 older Pliocene strata at Eppelsheim, which have yielded the most 

 complete specimens hitherto recovered of the bony framework and 

 dentition of the Mattodon anyiutUient ; and not a fragment of a bone 

 or tooth of the Mastodon has yet been found in these new pliocene 

 and post-tertiary deposits of England, which are so rich in remains of 

 the Mammoth. 



" In other parts of the world the genus Mastodon, under different 

 specific forms from our European Afcutodon anyiutidfnt, has continued 

 to be represented during a later epoch, and to have been contempo- 

 raneous with the Mammoth, or other extinct species of Elephant. In 

 certain localities in North America famous for remains of the Matlodon 

 ffi'janlrut, as Big-Bone Lick, the Mammoths bear to the Mastodons a 

 proportion of one to five. A species of Mastodon nearly allied to the 

 Mastodon anguttideni by the form of the molar teeth, is associated with 

 the Elephantoid Mastodon, and with a true species of Eltphat in the 

 tertiary formations of the Sub-Himalayan range. Another species of 

 Mastodon, also nearly allied to Mailoilon anguttideni, if we may judge 

 from the configuration of a molar tooth, has left its remains in the ossi- 

 ferous caves and post-tertiary or newer tertiary deposits of Australia. 

 From the conformity of the molar teeth, Cuvier regarded a Mastodon 

 whose remains hare been discovered in Peru, as identical in species 

 with the Mattodon anguitident of Europe. 



" We may therefore conclude that the gigantic proboscidian modifi- 

 cation of the Mammalian type was first manifested on our planet 

 under the generic form of the Mastodon, and with teeth which differed 

 less from those of the older tapiroid Pachyderms than do the grinders 

 of the true Elephants. 



" No genus of quadrupeds have been more extensively diffused over 

 the globe than the Mastodon. From the tropics it has extended both 

 south and north into temperate latitudes ; and in America remains of 

 the Mastodon have been discovered on the western coast as high as 

 the 06th degree of north latitude. But the metropolis of the Matlodon 

 giaanletu in the United States, like that of the Maitodon anyuttidcns 

 of Europe, lies in a more temperate zone ; and we have no evidence 

 that any species was specially adapted, like the Mammoth, for braving 

 the rigours of an arctic winter. 



" The Mastodon unquestionably possessed a long proboscis, the chief 

 office of which in the Klephant is to seize and break off the boughs of 

 trees for food. There is nothing in the ascertained organisation of the 

 Mastodon to lead us to doubt that such was also the principal function 

 of the trunk hi that genus. Cuvier however was of opinion that the 

 Mastodon applied its teeth, as the Hippopotamus and Hoe do, to the 

 mastication of the tender vegetables, roots, and aquatic plants. But 

 the large eminences of the grinding teeth, the unusual thickness of 

 the enamel, and the almost entire absence of the softer cement from 

 the grinding surface of the crown, would rather indicate that they 

 had been instruments for crushing harder and coarser substances than 

 those for the mastication of which the more complex but weaker 

 grinders of the Elephants are adapted. It has been conjectured that 

 the Mastodons were more aquatic, or swamp-hunting, quadrupeds 

 than the Elephants; their limbs were however proportionally shorter, 

 although constructed on the same type, each foot being terminated 

 by fire short and stout toes, which were evidently, by the form of the 

 last phalanx, confined hi one common thick hoot The leg-bones are 

 stronger in proportion than those of the Elephant, the cranium ia 

 flatter, and, from the smaller development of the frontal air-cells, it 

 presents a less intelligent character. The almost complete skeleton of 

 the Mattodon oiyantitu, so well known to the public as the ' Missouri 

 Leviathan,' when exhibited, with a most grotesquely-distorted and 

 exaggerated collocation of the bones, in 1842 and laia, in the Egyptian 

 Hall, Piccadilly, is now mounted in strict accordance with its natural 

 proportions in the British Museum." 



M ASTODON.SAU11U8, Dr. Jajger 1 * name for an extinct Saurian Rep- 

 tile found hi the Alaunschiefer, or Alum-Slate (Wurtemberg), founded 

 upon teeth, the largest of which, with part of the stone adhering, is 

 figured on the next column, one-half of the size of the original. The 

 other teeth were considerably smaller. 



Dr. Jseger is of opinion that these teeth must be held to approach 

 the nearest to those of the animals belonging to some of the species 

 of Monitor. The U<utodvntanrV4, from the length of its teeth, may 



be said, in bis opinion, to have equalled the JsfofOMNnu of Maastricht 

 in size ; but in the fonnat inn of the teeth the former differs from the 

 latter. The small teeth, he observes, agree so much in every respect 

 with the large one, that their difference ia size is only to be ascribed 

 to their having belonged to animal* of a different age, but not of a 

 different genus, and also to their having occupied different places in 

 the jaw. 



Tooth of Ut 



(Dr. Jicger's memoir, Ueber die FottUe Reptilien wdche in 

 berg avfgefunden warden tind, Stuttgart, 1828.) 



MATACO. [ARMADILLO.] 



MATAGASSE. [LAMAD*.] 



MATAMATA. [CHKLONIA.] 



MATHI'OLA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 BrauicacM, having tapering pods, converging stigmas thickened 

 at the back, a calyx with two saccate sepals, and compressed seeds 

 arranged in a single row and surrounded by a thin membranous 

 border. It consists of annual and perennial herbaceous plauts inha- 

 biting the warm countries bordering the Mediterranean, and extending 

 eastward into Persia and some of the southern Asiatic provinces of 

 Russia. Between 30 and 40 species are known to botanists, among 

 which are those which form the Stocks and Gilliflowcrs of gardens, 

 sweet-scented biennials much valued for the beauty and variety of 

 their many-coloured flowers. The principal source of these has been 

 Mathiola iacana, to which are to be assigned the hoary-leaved, or Ten- 

 Week Stocks, Brompton, and Queen's ; and M. glabrata, which com- 

 prehends the smooth-leaved, or green Wallflower-Leaved Stocks : it i* 

 however probable that the numerous varieties now common in gardens 

 under the name of German and Russian Stocks have been procured, 

 at least in part, by muling the former species with some of the sad- 

 coloured species of the genus. The Utter are called Luperiat by De 

 Caudolle, and are remarkable for their dingy flowers, which are exceed- 

 ingly fragrant at night, but at no other time. M. lirida, M. trittit, 

 and L. odoratitrima, are the best known of them, and are frequently 

 cultivated hi greenhouses. 



MATICO. [Pii'EB.] 



HATRICA'RIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Compoiita, the sub-order Corymbifcrae, the tribo Senecionidca, and the 

 section Anthemidece. It has a nearly flat involucre, with an elongated 

 conical receptacle : the fruit angular, not winged ; the pappus is either 

 absent, or in its place there is a slight membranous border. 



if. ChamomiUa, Wild Chamomile, has bipinnato smooth leaves, 

 capillary simple or divided segments, solitary heads of flowers, and a 

 hollow receptacle. This plant is common throughout Europe, on 

 dung-hills, in cultivated ground, and on way-sides and waste places. 

 It was formerly used as a medicine, but its place has been taken by 

 the Common Chamomile and other plants of the same order. It is 

 the 'Ar0</u't of Dioscoridos, lib. 3, cap. 144. 



Tbel'yrtthrum Parthenium, Fever-Few, ii by some botanists referred 

 to Afatricaria. This plant appears to be the 'Acflc/uiov of Theophrastug, 

 ' Hist. Plant.' lib. 14, cap. 1 ; and the Uapeinoy of Dioscorides, lib. 3, 

 cap. 135 ; and of Plutarch (' Sulla,' cap. 13). Other plants, as species 

 of I'arittaria, Chrytocoma, Ac., were called naf9ino by the Greek 

 writers. [1'rnETUiiUM.] 



(llabingtou, Manual of Jlrititk Botany ; Fraas; Synoptii.) 



MATU'TA, the name of a genus of Brachyurous Crustacea. 



MAVIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Leg*- 



i (MM, 



