MERULITE. 



MESITINE 8PAU. 



an uniform bright greenish-blue, destitute of spots. Beetle*, cater- 

 pillar*, and other iiiiecU, and in autumn berries, constitute the prin- 

 cipal food of the species. Nuttall further states that the young 

 remain for week* around gardens in quest of berries, and that they 

 are particularly fond of thote of the various specie* of cornel and 

 Viiumum. At this season, be lays, they occasionally leave their 

 favourite glens, and in their devious wanderings, previous to their 

 departure, sometimes venture to visit the rural suburbs of the city. 

 The young, it appears, are easily reared, and, like our Throstle, sing 

 nearly as well in the cage as in their native wilds. (' Manual of the 

 ( 'rnitholofry of the United States and of Canada.') 

 MERUUTE. [OPAL.] 



MERU'LIUS, a genus of Funyi, deriving iu name from Merula, a 

 Blackbird, some of the species being black. The character of the 

 genus is to have veiny or sinuous plaited hymenium, with the folds 

 confluent with the pileus, and forming angular unequal perforations. 

 Its only interest is derived from one of the species being a common 

 cause of dry-rot. This plant, the if. lachrymaiu of Fries, and the 

 Bdcltu lac/iryauuu of Sowerby's 'Fungi,' t 113, is very common on 

 rotten wood in vaults and cellars, among the timbers in ships, and in 

 similar damp situations where there is not a free circulation of air. In 

 general it is found without fructification, its tlmllus, or spawn, being 

 the only part developed, and resembling a white, dry, cottony matter, 

 consolidated into a substance like leather. The fructification is com- 

 posed of fine yellow orange or reddish-brown plicae, so arranged as 

 to have the appearance of perforations, and occasionally producing 

 " pendant proconorn like inverted cones :" it usually forms a circle 

 varying from 1 to 8 inches in diameter, and when perfect the cavities 

 contain drops of clear water, which have given rise to the specific 

 name. The means of preventing the attacks of this and other Futigi 

 upon timber is a free circulation of dry air, or the impregnation of 

 wood with corrosive sublimate, chloride of zinc, or creasote. [URT-Ror.] 



MKRYCOTHE'RIUM, the name applied by M. Bojanns to a genus 

 nf Fossil Mammalia, founded on three fossil teeth, according to the 

 authority of the person who sold them to him. Bojanus records one 

 species under the name of M. Sibiricum. 



Cnvier (' Osa. FOBS.') remarks that if these teeth are really fossil, and 

 from Siberia, this would be the first authentic example of such remains 

 belonging to the genus Camdm. He observes that their size, their 

 form (which is longer than it is wide), and the absence of an ' arete,' 

 or small cone, between the columns, leave no doubt as to their generic 

 character. Those of the Giraffe are more square, and with a small 

 point, as in the stags ; while those of the Ox have a cylindrical ' arete,' 

 or ridge. Cuvier further states that Bojanus, who has very well 

 remarked this general resemblance, has also noticed some differences 

 which have appeared to him sufficient to justify a new name for the 

 animal ; but the French zoologist observes that Bojanus proposes this 

 distinction with doubt, and declares his readiness to renounce it, if it 

 should be established that these teeth belonged to a camel, a gigantic 

 sheep, or an antelope (the only genera in fact which want ridges 

 between the columns). 



Cuvier thinks that the differences of which Bojanus speaks are 

 owing to the skulls of the Camels examined by the latter, as points of 

 comparison, being the heads of individuals much older than that to 

 which the teeth in question belonged. A Dromedary only a little 

 older, and whose teeth were nearly in the same state of detrition, 

 appeared to Cuvier to present no difference, save that of individuality. 

 He remarks that they are, as Bojanus truly pointed out, the penul- 

 timate and antepenultimate molars of the left side of the upper jaw, 

 and that it remains to show in what beds they were found, and to 

 search for other bones of the animal, in order to see whether they will 

 furnish any specific character. Cuvier concludes by stating that 

 M. Marcel de Serres, professor of mineralogy at Montpellier, had just 

 communicated to him a drawing of a fossil femur from the environs 

 of that city, which resembled much, in the parts of it which were 

 preserved, that of a CameL [C'AMELi'g.] 



Notwithstanding Cuvier's opinion, which is worthy of all respect, 

 there are those who still think that Mcrycothtrium is a distinct genus, 

 gee Boian., 'Nov. Act. Acad. Leop. Nat Cur.,' xii. tab. 21, f. 1-8. 



MESEMBKYA'CE/K. Picoidt, a natural order of Polypetalous 

 Exogcns, consisting of herbaceous and shrubby Plants inhabiting 

 various parts of the world, in very dry temperate climates, but 

 especially the Cape of Good Hope, where the species are extremely 

 numerous. They are succulent plants, with an inferior many-celled 

 polyspermous ovary, numerous narrow petals, indefinite stamens, and 

 a fruit splitting into regular stellate valves. Home of the plants nro 

 esculent, others furnish alkaline matter, while a few are diuretic. 

 Only four genera seem admissible into the order ; the others referred 

 to it under the name of Picoidtti chiefly belonging to Tetragoniacccc ; 

 bat llaembryaittltcmum, one of the admitted genera, alone comprehends 

 more than 300 species. [MttUUBTAXTHEMUM.] 



ME8EMBRYANTHEMUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order tfarmlnyactfr, or Picoidea. It has a calyx of 5 sepals, 

 rarely of 2 or 8, the sepals united to themselves and to the ovarimn ; 

 lobes unequal, usually leaf-formed; petals innumerable, in one, but 

 more often in many series, united among themselves at the base; 

 stamens indefinite, disposed in many series, inserted with the petals 

 at the top of the calyx ; ovariun odnate to the calyx, many-Celled 



inside ; stigmas 4-20, but usually fi ; capsule many-celled, opening 

 to llately at the apex, adnate to the permanent calyx ; seed* numer- 

 ous; embryo curved, at the side of a mealy albumen; cotyledon 

 thick, very blunt The species are sub-shrubs, rarely herbs, almost 

 all natives of the Cape of Good Hope. The leaves an usually opposite, 

 thick, fleshy, flat, terete, or trigonal. Flowers terminating the 

 branches white, yellow, or purple, the greater part of which open in 

 the heat of the sun, very few of them opening in the evening. The 

 species are all known by the name of Fig-Marigolds. 



Meftmbryanthrmum aibidutn. 

 1, a ripe fruit; 2, a vertical section of a flower. 



M. nodljlorum has an erectish stem ; leaves opposite and alternate, 

 nearly terete, obtuse, ciliated at the base ; flowers axillary, nearly 

 sessile ; lobes of the calyx very unequal, exceeding the petals, which 

 are small. It is a native of Egypt, Barbary, Corsica, and Naples, in 

 sandy places by the sea-side. It is used in Egypt for obtaining barilla 

 from its burnt ashes, and also in the manufacture of morocco leather. 

 This and other species afford a grateful food to the cattle in the arid 

 desert districts where they are found. 



M. cryitattinum, Ice-Plant, is diffusely procumbent, herbaceous; 

 covered with large glittering papulcc on every part, which makes the 

 plant appear as if covered with ice ; leaves ovate, alternate ; stem clasp- 

 ing, undulated; flowers axillary, almost sessile. It is a native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, Canary Islands, and of Greece about Athens, in 

 the sand by the sea-side. There are two varieties of this plant, one 

 a biennial, which is said to be the true M. cryttaUinum, and the other 

 an annual, which is the Common Ice-Plant of the gardens, called by 

 some botanist* M. glacialf. The whole plant is covered with glitter- 

 ing white papulic that shine iu the sun, whence it is called Ice-Plant ; 

 others name it the Diamond-Plant. Large quantities of the burnt 

 ashes of this plant are imported by the Spaniards for use in their 

 glass-works, under the name of Barilla Moradera. M. emarcidiim, 

 according to Burnett, in fermented by the Hottentots, when it becomes 

 narcotic, and is chewed by those people like tobacco, tf. albidum is 

 a sweet-scented species from the Cape. 



Don, Dichlamydeout Plant* ; Lindley, VegetaMt Kingdom.) 



I'KUIPORA. [POLYZOA.1 



M KSF.NTKHY ia that portion of the Peritoneum by which the intes- 

 tines are attached to the posterior wall of the abdomen. It consists 

 of a double layer of fine cellular and adipose tissue, which is attached 

 to the abdominal wall by a comparatively narrow origin, and becom- 

 ing gradually wider, spreads out like a fan, to be attached to the 

 whole length of the canal of the small intestines. Between its layers 

 the arteries pass to the intestines, and the veins and lacteal* return 

 from them. 



The other abdominal organs arc attached to the walls of that cavity 

 and to each other by layers of membrane similar to the Mesentery. 

 Those which belong to the colon are called the mono-colon ; those of 

 the rectum the meso-rectum, Ac. ; while those which connect the 

 stomach with the spleen and liver arc named respectively the gastro- 

 nplrnic and the gastro-hepatic, or lesser omentuin. [PERITONEUM.] 



MKS1TINE SPAR, Hinneril(, fi native Carbonate of Iron and 

 Manganese. It occurs in yellowish rhombohedrons. Its hardness is 



