MEXOITR 



MENTHA. 



Derbyshire, both in the wide bare surface of limestone and 

 the rugged glens which suddeuly break the dukiess of the open 

 ThcM narrow valleys appear like cracks and fissures in the 

 ;s, which, in Cheddar Cliffs, 



country. 



of calcareous rocks, 



, rise 285 feet per- 



pendicularly from the feet of the spectator, and undoubtedly exceed 

 uTgraodeur the noblest rocks of Derbyshire or Yorkshire. Several of 

 these glens are called ' combes,' aud Brockley Combe may be taken us 

 a beautiful example of the mixture of gray rock and ancient wood. 



From the chasms just alluded to the transition is easy to the caves 

 and internal fissures, which are numerous in Mendip. Many of the*e 

 hare become familiar to geologists by the uncommon abundance of 

 booes found in them by a host of explorers since the days of Catcott, 

 the celebrated and unfortunate explorer of Uuttou Hole. 



Dr. Bucklaod, in his ' Reliuuito Diluvianm,' describes, from the notes 

 of M r. Catoott aud Mr. Conybeare, the circumstances under which the 

 teeth and bones of elephants, horses, oxen, stag, bear, fox, and other 

 .ni,r..l. o f the Msjstozootic era occurred at Mutton. The bones 

 were found in the ochre-pits, which were anciently worked; they 

 were mostly white, well preserved, and appear to have been drifted in 

 by water, or collected from the falling in of quadrupeds roaming on 

 the surface. 



At Buringdon, in the Mendip Hills, and also in Wokey Hole, a 

 celebrated cavern near Wells, human bones have been found of high 

 antiquity, but being accompanied by urns or other marks of sepulture, 

 it is not supposed they belong to races contemporary with the mammoth 

 aud large cavern bear. The specimens of this latter animal iu the 

 cave at Hutton are of enormous bulk. 



Not far from Hutton Hole is the no less renowned cavern of 

 Banwell, explored under the direction of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

 The best collection of the contents of this rich repository was to be seen 

 near the month of the cave. The complicated parts of this cavern 

 an accessible by steps made in the rock, and are much visited. The 

 bones belong chiefly to oxen and deer. Bones of elephants, bears, 

 and other Canivora occur less commonly. The specimens are usually 

 in admirable preservation, and contrast remarkably with the frag- 

 mentary bones of the same nimal at Kent's Hole and Kirkdale. 



At the meeting of the British Association held at Newcastle, Mr. Long 

 communicated a notice of human bones found in a cave at Cheddar. 



The Mendip Hills, in their metalliferous products, resemble the 

 similarly constituted mountains of Derbyshire and Flintshire. They 

 yield galena, calamine (carbonate of zinc), and ochre. Manganese is 

 dug about East Harptree. The galena occurs principally in lime- 

 stone ; the tlmin belongs to the overlying magnesian conglomerate. 

 In that rock agates occur, and the large geodic crystallisations of quartz 

 called ' potato-atone*.' The fotsil corals, shell), tribolites, Ac. of the 

 Mendip Hills have been long known to collectors; but a complete 

 account of them has, we believe, never been prepared. 



(Conybeare aud Phillips, Geology of England and Waht ; Buckland 

 and Conybeare, ' Ou the South- West Coal District of England,' in 

 Geological Trantactiont, voL i. new series.) 

 JIKNGITK. [MOHABITB.1 

 MKXlSl'KKMA'CEJi, Menitpennadt, an important and extensive 

 natural order of Exogenous Plants, considered by some to be Polype- 

 talous, and referred to De Candoile's Thalaniifloral subclass ; by others 

 placed among the Monochlamydta of that author. The order consists 

 of twining or scrambling shrubby plants, with alternate leaves with- 

 out stipules, and small greenish or white unisexual flowers, often 

 collected in large loose panicles or racemes. The floral envelopes are 

 arranged in a power of three or four, aud usually in more rows than 

 one ; whence arises the opinion that these plants belong to Polypeta- 

 lous Exogens, the inner series being regarded as a corolla. The 

 rtinvmi an either distinct or mouadelphous, either equal in number 

 to the inner aeries of the calyx, and of the same number, or uiucl 

 more numerous. The carpels are in most oases three, or some multiple 

 of that number, either distinct from each other or consolidated. Tho 

 fruit consists of succulent one-celled drupes, with a solitary seed, anc 

 a horseshoe-shaped embryo, with thin flat cotyledons. 



The wood of the stem is arranged essentially upon the Exogenous 

 plan, but has some striking peculiarities According to M. Decaiane, it 

 has no annual conctntrical layers. The woody plates are always 

 simple, and do not divide longitudinally, as in oilier Dicotyledons, bui 

 incrwuM each year by the formation of a new woody layer outside the 

 former and inside the liber. The latter ceases to grow after the firs 

 year. In Cittampeloi Partim and some others new woody plates, like 

 the first in appearance, but having no spiral vessels or liber, show 

 themselves, at the end of several yean, on the outside of the ant, and 

 produce around them a concentric circle, a formation which may bi 

 repeaUd a great many times. (' Couiptes Rendus,' v. 393.) The ordei 

 is common in the tropics of Asia and America, but uncommon out o 

 these latitudes. All Africa contains but five. North America six, an 

 Siberia one. The species are universally found in woods twiniu) 

 round other plants. Cocculi are most common in the Old World, am 

 Ciaamptti in the New World. 



Memupcrmacta an usually bitter and tonic plants ; the species o 

 CoecWw called Baku, Fibraurto, cineratceui, and others, are used in 

 their native countries as a remedy for intermittent fevers. Coccultu 

 palmalHt furnishes the Calumba Hoot of the shops, a valuable bitter 

 Ferriria medita is used for the tamo reason in Ceylon, as It 



Hurmamn in Malnbar, and various sorts of Ciuaiapelot in Brazil. But 

 he bitter principle, which in its diluted state is thus valuable, becomes 



a dangerous poison if concentrated, as in the seeds of Anamirt* 

 occvltu, the Cocoulus Indicus of the shops. 

 There are 11 genera and 175 specie! of this order. 



Umuftrmum Ctinadrnst. 



1, a male flower ; 2, a female ; 3, the ripe fruit ; 4, a vertical section of the 

 same, showing the embryo and horse-shoe seed. 



MENISPERMI'NA, a vegetable alkali extracted by Pelletier and 

 Courbe from the Menitpermum cocculut, or Cucculus Jtuliciu, in the 

 shells of the fruit of which it occurs. 



MENISPERMUM (so called from /u^nj, the moon, and nlpiui, 

 seed, from the cresceut-like form of its fruit), a genus of the natural 

 family of Menitpermacea, which formerly contained numerous species, 

 many of them valuable for their mediciual and other qualities, such as 

 the Calumba Root, and the berries called Coccultu Indicia, which are 

 now referred to the genus Cocculut. [CoccuLUS.] Matiipermm, as at 

 present constituted, contains but few species ; and these are climbing 

 shrubs, which have their sepals and petals in quaternary order, arranged 

 in two or three whorls. Male, stamens 16 to '20 ; Female, ovaries 2 to 4 ; 

 drupes baccate, round, kidney-shaped, single-seeded. M. Canatleiuit 

 and M. Smilaeinum are found in the United States of America, and M. 

 Duuricum in the wooded hills of Daiiria. 



MENOBRANCHUS. [NECTURCS.] 



MKNOPOMA. [AMPHIBIA.] 



MENTHA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Lamia, 

 eta, or LabiatiF, It has a caiupouulate or tubular calyx, 5-toothed, 

 equal, or somewhat 2-lipped, with the throat naked inside or villous ; 

 corolla with the. tube inclosed, the limb cauipanulate, nearly equal, 

 4-cleft, the upper segment broader, nearly entire, or emarginate ; 

 stamens 4, equal, erect, distant; filaments smooth, naked; anthers 

 with two parallel cells ; style shortly bifid, with the lobes bearing 

 stigmas at the points; fruit dry and smooth. 



M. viridit, Spearmint, is a native of Britain, and is also found in 

 the milder parts of Europe, the Canaries, Cape of Good Hop 

 America, both North and South. It is a creeping rooted herbaceous 

 plant, with an erect smooth stem ; leaves subsessUc, ovate-lanceolate, 

 unequally serrated, smooth, those under the flower* all bract-like, 

 rather longer than tho whorls, these aud the calyxes hairy or smooth ; 

 spike* cylindrical, loose ; whorls approximated, or the lowest or all 

 of them distant. This plant greatly resemble* M. piperita. The colour 

 however is of a deep green. It is also frequently confounded with 

 M. critpa, than which it has a stronger and more agreeable odour, but 

 weaker than peppermint. It has not the aromatic odour of that plant, 

 nor does it leave the sense of coolness iu the mouth. From it are 

 prepared a distilled water, a spirit, and a volatile oil, which are used 

 as the former. 



M. piperila, Peppermint, is found by the sides of ditches and rivers 

 in Britain, all over Europe, iu Egypt, the middle of Asia, India, and 

 North and South America. It has a procumbent ascending branched 

 stein, reddish, quite smooth, or fringed with a very few spreading 

 hairs; petioles generally ciliated; leaves ovate-oblong, or somewhat 



