71 



Ml'SANGA. 



ICU8CL 



8-oelld, often hairing a membranous peUloid crest ; ovary inferior, 

 3-celled, many-weded, rarely Speeded; ovule* anatropal; style simple; 

 stigma usually 3-lobed. Fruit either a 3-celled capsule, with a oocu- 

 liotdal dehisoence, or succulent and indchiscent Seed* continuous, 

 arrounded by hairs, with an integument which is usually crustaceous ; 

 embryo orthotropal, oblong-linear, or mushroom-shaped, with the rodi- 

 cular end touching the hiluui, baring pierced through the mealy albumen. 



The specie* are stately and always beautiful herbaceous plants with 

 the aspect of a plantain, and with large bracts and spathes, which are 

 usually coloured of some gay tint The characteristic marks of the 

 order are to hare an inferior ovary, with very irregular and unsyni- 

 metrical flowers, whose sexual apparatus is not consolidated. It it 

 chiefly by these distinctions that it is known from Amaryllidacetr. 

 In some the fruit is fleshy, as in the Plantain ; in others it is dry and 

 piili- Only 4 genera are known of this order, consisting of about 

 30 species, all of striking beauty. Jleliconia is the principal American 

 form, nearly all the others being found in the Old World ; of these 

 the species are conspicuous for their brilliantly-coloured rigid boat- 

 shaped bract*, sometimes yellow, sometimes scarlet, and even a mix- 

 ture of both. The species of Strditzia are Cape plants with rigid 

 glaucous leaves, and singularly irregular flowers of considerable size, 

 coloured yellow and blue or pure white. Finally, the Ravenula of 

 Madagascar (Crania ipeciota), a noble palm-like plant, is remarkable 

 for the brilliant blue colour of the lacerated pulpy aril which envelopes 

 the seeds ; the latter are used for dyeing in Madagascar, but none of 

 the order are of any important use to man, with the exception of the 

 Musaa themselves. [MOSA,] 



MUSANGA, the name of the seeds of species of Cecropia and 

 Artocarptu, used by the African. O f the Gold Coast. 



MUSCA. [MuaoiDJt] 



MUSCALES, an alliance of Acrogenous Plants in Lindley's arrange- 

 ment of the Vegetable Kingdom. It includes two divisions: 

 1. Ifepatica ; 2. Mutci. The Hcpatica include the orders Jiicciacea; 

 Mardumtiaeta, Jtutgtnnanniaceir, and Equuttacca:. [ACROOESS ; 

 RICCIACE.E ; JUKUERMANSIACE Ji ; MARCHANTIACE& ; EQUISETACE.E.] 

 The Afutci include the orders Andraacett and Bryacete. [MuscL] 



MUSCARDINE, the name given to a disease to which silk-worms 

 are subject, and which often causes great injury to those who cultivate 

 these animals for the sake of their silk. This disease is attended with 

 the development of a fungus belonging to the genus Botrytit, and has 

 been named by Balsamo and Montague B. Batriana. This plant, 

 which is characteristic of the disease, can be propagated by the intro- 

 duction of spores into a healthy caterpillar. The result of the changes 

 produced upon the blood and tissues of the animal is its death. This 

 disease i much more common some years than others. It frequently 

 spreads to other insects ; and the caterpillars of other Lepidoptcra can 

 be inoculated by the spores of the Botrytit. When once the disease has 

 appeared there seems to be no means of checking it. The best mode 

 of prevention is to take care that the caterpillars are not over-crowded, 

 and that they have a sufficient supply of fresh food. The predispo- 

 sition to this disuse amongst silk-worms seems to be brought on by 

 the same fmtisn* as those which act upon the human system, and 

 render it favourable to the attacks of epidemic diseases. [ENTorii YTA ; 

 FCHOI; BOTBTTD; MOULDINESS.] (Robin, Uitt.da V(g(tavuc Paratitet.) 



MUSCA'RI, a genua of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Lilian*. It has a globose and subcylindrical perianth, narrowed at 

 the mouth, and 6-toothed; the stamens are inserted at about the 

 middle of the tube, the filaments not decurrent. 



M. rafemotum, Grape-Hyacinth, is the only British species of tliU 

 genus. It abounds in Suffolk, near Pakenham, and is found in some 

 other parts of Great Britain. It has ovate nodding crowded flowers, 

 the upper ones nearly sessile, abortive ; the leaves linear, flaccid, and 

 recurved. The flowers are of a dark-blue colour. It grows most 

 abundantly in sandy fields. 



The bulbs of At. motchaiut* are, according to Lindley, emetic. 



(Babington, Manual of Brit. Botany ; Lindley, Vegcl. Kingdom.) 



MU8CHELKALK. A Calcareous Rock, interposed in the midst of 

 the New Red-Sandstone System, receives this name in Germany, and 

 though it is not more carboniferous than some other limestones, yet 

 it is much richer in organic remains than the average of the strata 

 with which it is associated. This rock occupies a considerable space 

 in the vicinity of the Han, Schwarzwald, and Vosges Mountains, but 

 is unknown in the British Isles, though several small bands of calca- 

 reous rock intcrkminato the variegated clays of the Red-Sandstone 

 System. Brown (' Lithsoa Geognostioa ') present* tho following synop- 

 sis of the strata in this formation, as it appears on the flanks of the 

 Iflack Forest : 



Xenper formation. 

 Dolomite (Nagelfcls, Malbsteiu). 

 fPeetmite Limestone. 

 Rogenstein (Oolitic). . 

 Encrinitic Limestone. 1 

 Palinureiikalk, > 



. Kucriiiitic Limestone. J 

 Dark Clay and Anhydrite, with Dolomite, 



Swinestone, and Hock-Salt 

 Limestone and Dolomite Marls, with Gypsum 

 and Rock-Salt 



Dolomite . 



Limestone of 

 Friedricbshall 



Anhydrite . 



Bunirr Sanditcin. 



The fossil remains of the Muschelkalk participate in the more 

 common species of the Bunter Sandstein below and the Keuper 

 above; but among the peculiar species may be reckoned A'ncnnu* 

 numtfi/brmu and Ammonita (cenitita)nodotut. Saurian reptiles occur 

 in this rock. 



MUSCI, or MOSSES, constitute a group of Cryptogamic or Flower- 

 less Plant*, of considerable extent and of great interest on account of 

 their very singular structure. They are in all cases of small size, 

 never exceeding a few inches in height, and, though often of almost 

 microscopical minuteness, are furnished with leave* arranged over a 

 distinct axis of growth, and are propagated by means of reproductive 

 apparatus of a peculiar nature. They have no trace of spiral or other 

 vessels in their tissue, but are formed entirely of cellular tissue, in the 

 stem lengthened into tubes. For a long time they were thought to be 

 destitute of stomates, but these were discovered by Trcviranus and 

 Unger, and afterwards by Mr. Valentine. (' Transactions of the Linuxon 

 Society,' vol. xviii. j>. 239.) In addition to the stomates, several 

 species are pierced with large round openings, which are sometimes 

 inhabited by a wheel-animalcule tho Rotifer vtdgarit. 



The organs of fructification are of two kinds. The most universal 

 and most conspicuous is the Urn (Sporangium,'or Thcca), in which tho 

 spores, or seed-like bodies, are generated. If the axils of the leaves 

 of a moss are examined at the proper season of the year, there will 

 be found in some of them clusters of articulated filaments swollen at 

 the base, from among which some one will be larger than the remain- 

 der, and go on growing while they are arrested in their development. 

 After a while this body is found to have an exterior membranous 

 coating, which separates from the base by a circular incision, but 

 which otherwise adheres to the port beneath it The latter, which is 

 the young urn, gradually acquires a stalk, called the Seta, upon which 

 it is elevated above the leaves, carrying the outer membrane upwards 

 on it* point, so that when full grown it is covered by it as with a 

 cap then called a Calyptra. The um itself is closed by a lid, or Oper- 

 culum, and contains the spores arranged in a cavity surrounding a 

 central column, or Columella. It* rim is bordered by a double row of 

 processes, often resembling jointed teeth, and called the Peristome, 

 one set of which appears to belong to the outer shell of the urn and 

 the other to the inner. Usually the urn grows from a fleshy tubercle 

 called the Apophyais, the station of which is in most cases at the base 

 of the seta, but in Splanchnum forms a curious process at the apex of 

 the seta, immediately below the urn. 



furiilttis Adiantoida. 



1, an entire Plant, much magnified ; 2, a cluster of young Urni ; 3, an Urn, 

 full grown, with its Calyptrt, 4, remorcd ; i, tho Urn with the Operculum 

 fallen off ; 6, a portion of the Pcristomc. 



A, second set of organs, to which tho name of Anthcridia or Stami- 

 niilia has been applied, are also observed. These are alao found 

 clustered in the axils of leaves ; they consist of membranous, cylin- 

 drical, jointed, or jointleas bodies, irregularly opening at the point, 

 and discharging a mucous turbid fluid ; they are surrounded by 

 paraphysea, or jointed filaments, like the urns themselves. (See tho 

 figures on the next column.) 



The function of these two sets of organs has long been a matter of 

 dispute. The following account from Mr. Henfrey's report on the 

 ' Reproductive Organs of the Higher Cryptogamia,' made to the 

 British Association in 1851, will supply all the information that is at 

 present known on this subject : 



" On no subject has more discussion been maintained than on the 

 existence of sexes among the Cryptogamous Families. The discovery 

 of the two kinds of organs, the Anthcridia and Pistillidia, in the 



