917 



MOUFLON. 



MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE. 



918 



most evident when the stove is closed and the atmosphere quite still. 

 These movements have more the semblance of spontaneity than any 

 others that have been observed in the more perfect plants ; for the 

 leaflets, if held quiet between the fingers for a short time, and their 

 movements thus prevented, are said immediately on their release to 

 revolve with accelerated force, as if to make up for the time lost 

 during the forcible interruption." De Candolle describes the motion 

 thus : The leaves consist of three leaflets, two of which are lateral, 

 very small, linear, and oblong, and an odd one, separated from the 

 two others, much larger and oval-oblong. The two side leaflets are in 

 almost continual motion, which takes place by little starts, like the 

 small hand that marks the seconds of a watch. One of these rises so 

 as to mount about 50 degrees above the level of the petiole, and the 

 other falls on the opposite side to about the same distance ; when the 

 latter rises the other falls, and thus a constant oscillation is main- 

 tamed. The central leaflet also moves, but much more slowly, sloping 

 first to the right, then to the left, and so on. 



In the above instances we see, aa it were, the natural tendency to 

 mobility in the plant developed. The reason why no greater amount 

 of movement occurs in the vegetable appears to be the nature of the 

 cell-wall, which being composed of the unyielding material cellulose 

 in sufficient quantities, resists all attempts at movement from the 

 imprisoned protein. [PROTEIN ; CELLS.] 



MOUFLON. rOvEAl 



MOUOKOTIA. [ALO^.] 



MOULDINESS is a name applied to all minute Fungi which appear 

 in masses upon organic bodies. It appears to be caused by a damp 

 atmosphere and a diminution of light, both which conditions are 

 favourable to the development of those bodies whose spores or repro- 

 ductive particles are floating everywhere in the atmosphere, ready to 

 spring rapidly into growth whenever they chance to fall upon suitable 

 situations. 



All the Pwiyi that constitute mouldiness are so small as to escape 

 observation, except when from their numbers they form microscopical 

 forests; and then they clothe the surface of the body which they 

 attack with light patches of yellow, blue, white, green, red, and 

 various other colours. The species of these plants are extremely 

 numerous, and are distributed by writers on Fungi into many genera, 

 chiefly belonging to the Hyphomycetous division of the order, the 

 combining character of which is, that the plants are flocculent, naked 

 (that is, not inclosed in a case or seated upon a peculiar receptacle), 

 distinct, but interwoven into a general mass, which looks like a thin 

 web, or a collection of cobwebs. 



One of the most common is the Atcophoro, Mucedo, which forms a 

 blue mould upon bread, paste, and similar substances prepared from 

 flour. This plant forms a fine horizontal cobweb-like bed, from 

 which rise up slender branches terminated by an expansion which 

 bears the spores. 



Ascophora Mucedo, very highly magnified. 



a is a sporiferotift branch arlilng from the horizontal bed ; b is the tormina. 

 ti an of a branch covered with spores. 



Another form is that of Penicillium, in which we have the same 

 entangled flocculent bed, and a similar elevation of perpendicular 

 branches; but the latter are not terminated by a disc covered with 

 spores; on the contrary, they end in jointed tuft, every division of 

 which produces at its point a necklace of spherical sporules. The 



plant called the Vinegar Plant, which 

 verting sugar into vinegar, appears to 

 Penicillium glaucum. 



)ossesses the power of con- 

 >e an undeveloped form of 



Penicillium verticillatum, highly magnified. 



a represents a cluster of perpendicular branches springing up from the hori- 

 zontal bed ; 6 is one of the pencil-like heads which terminate the branches. 



Mouldiness is occasionally produced by Coniomycetous Fungi that 

 is, by those very imperfectly organised species which have no floccu- 

 lent bed, nor any special part on which the spores are generated, but 

 which merely consist of a series of joints within which reproductive 

 bodies are formed. Of these, the Torula Caaei, found in the crevices 

 of putrid cheese, may serve as an example. 



A morsel of Tumla Catei, very highly magnified, after Corda, 



Many of these plants are capable of living under circumstances that 

 would be fatal to any other form of vegetation ; for example, Asco- 

 phora Mucedo springs up plentifully in pasta poisoned with corrosive 

 sublimate. 



Their general station is upon decaying animal or vegetable matter ; 

 but one species, the Botrytis Bassiana, attacks the living silkworm 

 and kills it; others destroy house-flies, which may be seen in the 

 autumn glued by these parasites to the window, on which they have 

 alighted in a semitorpid state. 



The following are the botanical names of some of the more common 

 species of Fungi that cause mouldiness : 



Hydrophora ttercorea (yellow, turning black), on the dung of various 

 animals ; Mucor mucedo (bluish-black), on fruit, pastry, &c. ; Eurotium 

 lierbariorum (white, yellow, or orange), on damp plants iu Herbaria ; 

 Cladosporium herbarum (green, turning black), on various decaying 

 bodies, damp paint, &c. ; Aspergillus candidua (white), very common ; 

 Aspergillus glaucus (blue), very common. 



MOULTING. [BIRDS.] 



MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE is a term employed by Dr. Smith to 

 designate the calcareous rocks which underlie the coal strata in 

 England. It is the equivalent of the Carboniferous Limestone of 

 Conybeare and many other geologists in England. It is the Calcaire 

 Carbonifcre of the French, and the Berg-Kalk of the Germans. 



In England the Mountain Limestone forms the true base of the 

 upper part of the Palseozoic Series. [GEOLOGY.] It is not however 

 always present. From the character of the limestone it is inferred, 

 that the whole mass of this formation has been deposited by the 

 ageucy of the coral-forming Polypi/era. Embedded in the limestone 

 are found numerous shells and remains of Encriniles and Fishes. 

 These are common to it and the coal-beds. [COAL FoRMiTioN.] It 

 not unfrequently presents bands of impure coal, which in other 



