1029 



MYRSINACE^E. 



MYRTUS. 



1030 



Umbdliferai) and to the tribe Scandicinece. It has an obsolete calyx ; 

 obcordate petals, with an indexed point ; the fruit not beaked ; the 

 carpel covered with a double membrane ; the outer membrane with 

 elevated keeled ridges hollow within, the inner one close to the seed ; 

 no vittae. The speciea have leaves three times decomposed, the leaflets 

 piunatifid ; the involucrum wanting ; the involucels of many lanceolate 

 ciliated leaves, the central flowers of the umbel staminiferous ; the 

 petals white. 



if. odorata, Sweet Cicely, or Great Chervil, has the leaves downy 

 beneath, the leaflets of the partial involucres lanceolate-acuminate. 

 This plant has a stem 2 or 3 feet high, round, leafy, and hollow. It 

 is a native of middle and south Europe and Asia, from Spain to Asia 

 Minor, also of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the south of France, 

 and the north of Italy. In Great Britain it is found in pastures and 

 hilly districts. This plant was formerly much used in medicine. It 

 yields a volatile oil, which has a pleasant odour. The young leaves 

 and seeds were used in salads, and the roots were boiled or eaten cold, 

 or in tarts or in a variety of sauces. In Germany the seeds were added 

 to soups, and in the north of England they are employed for polishing 

 and perfuming old oak floors and furniture. M. sidcatum has hoary 

 leaves, and is a native of Spain. Both species may be grown in any 

 common garden soil, and propagated by seeds or division of the roots. 



(Babington, M anual of British Botany ; Burnett, Outlines of Botany.) 



MYRSI.VA'CEjE, Ardisiada, a natural order of Plants. They are 

 chiefly subtropical plants of the Exogenous class, so nearly the same 

 in their fructification as the species of Primulacece of northern climates, 

 that scarcely any valid mark of distinction can be found between 

 them. The indehiscent fruit in Myrsinocece is chiefly relied upon for 

 the means of separating them. The general appearance of the two 

 orders U however widely different ; Primulacece consisting of herbs 

 with no development of woody matter, while Afyrsinacew, in all cases 

 yet observed, are shrubs or trees. Many of the species have handsome 

 foliage and gaily-coloured flowers, on which account they are frequently 

 met with in gardens, but they are of no importance for useful purposes. 

 Ardiiia and Jacquinia are the two commonest genera. The order 

 contains 30 genera and 320 species. 



MYRTA'CE^E, Myrtle-Blooms, are Polypetalous Exogens, forming 

 a very extensive and important natural order of Plants, exclusively 

 inhabiting warm countries, and in all cases either shrubs or trees, an 

 herbaceous form of the order being unknown. The most northern 

 station of the species is the south of Europe, where the common Myrtle 

 grows apparently wild. [MYRTUS.] If this plant is taken as the type 

 of the order, it might be said to consist of aromatic plants with 

 opposite leaves, dotted with transparent oil-cysts, bearing icosandrous 

 inonogynous polypetalous flowers, succeeded by an inferior succulent 

 fruit ; but this is the character rather of a section of the order than of 

 Myrtacece considered as a whole. In this division are however included 

 nearly all the species employed for the use of man. Among the table- 

 fruits of the tropics are the Guava, yielded by different species of 

 Ptidium; the Rose-Apple and Jamrosade, produced by Eugenia 



I'sitlium pomi/erum. 

 1, a flower ; 2, a stamen ; 3, a transverse section of the ovary. 



Malaccentu and E. Jamboi : of spices, Cloves are the flower-buds of 

 C'aryophyllut arcmiatiau ; and Allspice is the dried berries of Eugenia, 



Pimento; all which are obtained from plants belonging to the same 

 section as the Common Myrtle : the aromatic fruits of that plant were 

 indeed used as a spice before Cloves and Allspice became common. 

 [EUGENIA; PSIDITJM.] 



The deviations that take place from the typical structure of the 

 order consist partly in the fruit being dry and capsular instead of 

 fleshy and indehiscent, and partly in the organisation of the interior 

 of the fruit being reduced to a state of great simplicity ; besides which 

 the leaves are often alternate instead of opposite. Some of the species 

 have no corolla, and there is in many cases a very singular tendency 

 to consolidate the floral organs of all kinds. 



The species with capsular fruit are principally found in Australia, 

 where, in the form of Eucalyptus and Leptospermttm, they constitute 

 one of the most striking features of the vegetation. [EUCALYPTUS.] 

 These plants abound in a powerful astringent secretion, chiefly found 

 in their bark, on wbjch account they are found valuable for the tan- 

 ner's purposes; while the aromatic principle is also abundantly secreted 

 in other cases, as, for example, in Melaleuca Cajeputi, from which the 

 green stimulating oil of the Cajeput is procured. [MELALEUCA.] 



It is more particularly among these species that anomalous con- 

 ditions of the floral organs occur. In Eucalyptus there is no corolla, 

 and the segments of the calyx are so completely united to each other 

 as to form a fleshy cap, thrown off by the flowers when the time arrives 

 for extricating the stamens. In Melaleuca, Calothamnus, and several 

 others, the stamens are united to each other by their filaments, so as 

 to form showy, petal-like, fringed expansions ; and in Etidesmia the 

 petals themselves are united into a cap, thrown off upon the expansion 

 of the flower. 



The most singular form of Myrtacece is that which derives its name 

 from an Australian plant, called Chamcelawcium, in which the interior 

 of the ovary contains but one cell, with from two to five ovules rising 

 up obliquely from its base. These plants are all small heath-like 

 shrubs, having in the majority of cases the edge of the petals prolonged 

 into long and delicate fringes. Such plants are extremely abundant 

 on the west coast of Australia, where they form one of the most 

 striking characters of the Flora. 



Punica Granatum, the Pomegranate-Tree, is a most anomalous form 

 of Myrtacece, remarkable for an almost total absence of transparent 

 dotting, and consequently of aromatic qualities ; and having a fruit 

 consisting of two whorls of carpels compacted together into an inferior 

 ovary, the interior of which becomes altered and distended so much 

 after the flower has fallen off, that the fruit is nothing but a collection 

 of cavities filled with seeds, and having no apparent relation to each 

 other. [PuuiCA.] 



The genus Caryopkyllus has the following characters : Tube of the 

 calyx cylindrical ; limb 4-parted ; petals 4, adhering by their ends in 

 a sort of calyptra ; stamens distinct, arranged in 4 parcels in a quad- 

 rangular fleshy hollow near the teeth of the calyx ; ovary 2-celled ; 

 ovules about 20 in each cell ; berry 1-2-celled, 1-2-seeded ; seeds cylin- 

 drical or half-ovate; cotyledons thick, fleshy, convex externally, sinuous 

 hi various ways internally. 



C. aromaticus, the Clove-Tree, is a native of the Molucca Islands. It 

 is a moderately-sized tree, with leaves opposite and decussate, persistent, 

 somewhat coriaceous and shining, minutely punctuated, about 4 inches 

 long, ovate-lanceolate, more or less acute, quite entire, pale beneath, 

 tapering gradually at the base into a slender foot-stalk which is almost 

 2 inches long. The cloves of the shops are the dried compressed flower- 

 buds of this tree. 



MY'RTEA (Turton), a genus of Mollusca. 



MYRTLE. [MYRTUS.] 



MYRTLE-BLOOMS. [MYRTACE.E.] 



MYRTUS (Mupros), a genus of Plants, the type of the natural 

 order Myrtacece. It has the calyx-tube somewhat globose, with the 

 limb 5- or very rarely 4-partite ; the petals 5, or very rarely 4 ; the 

 stamens distinct ; the berry 2- or 3-celled, somewhat globose, crowned 

 with the segments of the calyx; several seeds in each cell, or very 

 rarely solitary ; uniform, with a bony testa ; the embryo curved ; 

 cotyledons semi-cylindrical, very short, the radicle twice the length of 

 the cotyledons. The species are shrubs with opposite quite entire 

 pellucid dotted leaves ; peduncles axillary, 1- or rarely 3-flowered. 



M. communis, Common Myrtle, has solitary 1-flowered pedicels about 

 the length of the leaves, bearing 2 linear bracteoles under the flowers; 

 the calyx 5-cleft ; the leaves ovate, lanceolate, or acute. This beautiful 

 plant is a native of the south of Europe ; it is found wild in France 

 about Marseille, and extends from that city along the sea-coast to 

 Genoa, and throughout Italy. In these districts it forms thickets 

 which sometimes grow within reach of the spray of the sea. This 

 plant has been in all ages a great favourite in Europe. It was called 

 by the Greeks Miiproj. Mvpy'tvy is the name under which Hippocrates 

 refers to this plant. (' Morb. Mul.,' i. 599.) Theophrastus also uses 

 this word, and MupnVij and Muprls, in speaking of the Myrtle. The 

 Romans knew this plant by the name of Myrtus. (Pliny, 12-13.) 

 This name has been adopted in most European languages. It is 

 Mirto in Italian and Spanish ; Myrte in German ; Myrter in Danish ; 

 Myrten in Swedish ; Mirte in French ; Mirta in Portuguese. 



The leaves of the Myrtle, like the whole order, contain a volatile oil 

 which possesses medicinal properties, and they were used as stimulants 

 by the ancients. The buds and berries of this plant also contain volatile 



