MAIOLIKA MAIZE 



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Maintenon ct Madame la Princessc ties Ursins (four 

 vols.), were published at Paris. 



MAIOLIKA. See Faience. 



MAIRE, LE, STRAITS OF ; a narrow channel 

 or passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, 

 between Terra del Fuego and Staten Land. The 

 strait, which is bounded west by Terra del Fuego, 

 and east by the west end of Staten Land, is about 

 fifteen miles long and as many broad. It derives its 

 name from Le Maire, a Dutch pilot, who discovered 

 it in 1616. 



MAISTRE, JOSEPH, count de, Sardinian minister, 

 and member of the royal academy of sciences at 

 Turin, born at Cliamberri, 1753, of a French family, 

 was a senator of Piedmont at the time of the French 

 invasion (1792). He left his country in consequence 

 of that event, and afterwards followed his king to 

 Sardinia. In 1804, he was sent ambassador to St 

 Petersburg, returned to Turin in 1817, and died 

 there in 1821. De Maistre was familiar with the 

 Greek and Latin literature. He was an enemy of 

 liberal principles in religion, politics, and philosophy. 

 As a diplomatist, he exerted himself to effect the 

 restoration of all his former possessions to his master, 

 and to obtain the transfer of Genoa. Among his 

 political writings are his Eloge de Victor Amadee 

 III.', Considerations sur la France (1796, 3d edit., 

 1814, and also three editions at Paris); Essai sur le 

 Principe Generateur des Constitutions politiques, in 

 which he maintains the divine origin of sovereignty; 

 Soirees de St Peter slourg ; Du Pape; and Du Congres 

 de Rastadt, the last in conjunction with the abbe de 

 Pradt. His brother Xavier, born at Chaiaberri, 

 1764, major-general in the Russian service, member 

 of the Turin academy of sciences, is favourably known 

 as a writer. The Transactions of the Turin Academy 

 contain several chemical communications from him. 

 He is an excellent landscape painter, and a witty 

 poet. His Voyage autour de ma Chambre, distin- 

 guished for its gaiety and philosophy, has been trans- 

 lated into several languages. Le Lepreux de la 

 Cite d'Aosta (translated into English, Philadelphia, 

 1825) delineates with much talent and feeling, but 

 in sombre and mystic colours, the suffering of a man 

 cut off from all human society. His (Euvres, rid edit., 

 Paris, 1825, 3 vols.,) contain also the Expedition 

 nocturne autour de ma Chambre; Les Prisonnicrs du 

 Caucase; and Lajeune Siberienne (a translation of the 

 two last is called Russian Tales, Philadelphia, 1826). 



MAITRE ; the French for master ; a word used 

 in many connexions. 



Maitre d'armes is a degree bestowed in France by 

 the societies of teachers of fencing, on such persons 

 as are deemed capable of instructing in this art. 



Maitre de requetes were officers of the parliament 

 of Paris, before the revolution, who reported on peti- 

 tions, &c. (requetes). Napoleon re-established the 

 title, and gave it to certain officers belonging to the 

 council of state. 



MAITTAIRE, MICHAEL; a learned critic and 

 bibliographer, born in France, in 1668. His parents 

 having fled to England, to avoid the persecutions in 

 France, he was educated at Westminster school and 

 Christ-church college, Oxford, where he took the 

 degree of M.A., in 1696. The preceding year, he 

 had been made second master of Westminster school, 

 which office he relinquished in 1699, and, from thai 

 period, devoted his time to private tuition and the 

 study of literature. His editions of various Greek 

 and Latin authors are esteemed for their accuracy. 

 His most important literary production is his Annales 

 Typographic! ab Artis Inventione (1719 1741, five 

 vols., 4to, augmented by Denis and Panzer). He 

 also wrote a Historia Stephanorum Gr. Lingua 

 Dialecti, and edited the Marmora Oxoniensia. 



MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN (zea mays). The 

 native country of this valuable grain remains still 

 undetermined. It is usually attributed to America, 

 where it was cultivated by the aborigines at the time 

 of the discovery ; but no botanist has hitherto found 

 t growing wild in any part of the new continent ; 

 and most certainly it does not so exist in any portion 

 of the territory of the United States. It is also cer- 

 tain that its culture did not attract notice in Europe, 

 Asia, or the north of Africa, till after the voyage of 

 Columbus. It was unknown to the ancient Greek 

 and Roman writers, and is not mentioned by the 

 earlier travellers who visited China, India, and other 

 parts of Asia and Africa, and who were very minute 

 n describing the productions of the countries which 

 they visited. Notwithstanding these considerations, 

 iome authors have endeavoured to prove that it was 

 originally from India, and thence introduced through 

 Persia to Africa. Others, again, have attributed its 

 origin to the western coast of Africa. 



Like the other cerealia, it belongs to the natural 

 Family graminece, being neither more nor less than a 

 gigantic grass. It is annual and herbaceous. The 

 root is fibrous ; the stems rise to the height of from 

 four to ten feet, and, like other grasses, are furnished 

 with knots at intervals. The leaves are alternate, 

 sessile, sheathing at the base, and are slightly pubes- 

 cent on their superior surfaces, and ciliate on the 

 margin ; they vary in length from one to three feet, 

 by three or four inches in breadth. The male flowers 

 are disposed on several spikes, which, together, form 

 a large panicle at the summit of the stem. The 

 female flowers are very numerous, sessile, and dis- 

 posed in the axiUse of the superior leaves, upon a 

 common axis, which is surrounded with foliaceous 

 sheaths or husks ; the styles are very numerous, six 

 to eight inches long, and hang down like a silken 

 tassel from the extremity of the foliaceous envelope ; 

 the seeds or grains are rounded externally, angular 

 and compressed at the sides, and tapering towards 

 the base, and are disposed in several longitudinal 

 series. A great number of varieties are cultivated, 

 differing in the size, hardness, number and colour of 

 the grains, the form of the spikes or ears, and, what 

 is a very important circumstance to the human 

 family, in the time required to bring them to 

 maturity. The grains in some varieties are violet 

 or black ; in others purple, white, or variegated ; 

 and sometimes grains of different colours are found 

 on the same spike ; but the usual colour is golden 

 yellow. Some varieties require five months from the 

 time of sprouting for the perfect maturity of the 

 grains, while the period of six weeks is sufficient for 

 others. Owing to this circumstance, this plant can 

 be cultivated in a far wider range of climate than 

 any other species of grain, not only throughout the 

 tropical regions of the globe, but in the most north- 

 ern parts of the United States ; in fine, wherever 

 the heat of summer is intense, though it may be of 

 short duration. It is usually ranked the third grain, 

 in point of utility, next after rice and wheat ; but the 

 former of these can only be cultivated in the warmer, 

 and the latter only in the temperate parts of the 

 earth. 



Maize is now very extensively cultivated, not only 

 in America, but throughout a great part of Asia and 

 Africa, and also in several countries of the south of 

 Europe, as in Spain and Italy. In many of the pro- 

 vinces of France, it forms almost exclusively the sus- 

 tenance of the inhabitants. In some parts of America, 

 two crops are obtained in a season, but, as it is found 

 to exhaust the soil very soon, it is usually planted 

 upon the same piece of ground only after an interval 

 of five or six years. It succeeds best in a light and 

 slightly humid soil. The usual, though not the best 



