OF BRITISH PLANTS. 153 



MICHAELMAS DAISY, from its resemblance to a daisy, and 

 its season of flowering, Aster Tradescanti, L. 



MIDSUMMER DAISY, 



Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum L. 



MIDSUMMER MEN, from a custom of girls to try their 

 lovers' fidelity with it on Midsummer eve. See LIVELONG. 



Sedum Telephium, L. 



MIQNONETTE, dim. of Fr. mignon, darling, from G. 

 tninne, love, a name applied in France to several very 

 different plants, Eeseda odorata, L. 



MILDEW, A.S., mele-deau, from melu, meal, and deau, 

 dew, Q. mehlthau, a name descriptive of the powdery ap- 

 pearance upon leaves and stems of plants from the growth 

 of certain minute fungi, Erisiphe, DC., etc. 



MILFOIL, Fr. mille audfeuilles, L. millefoliola, from the 

 numerous fine segments of its leaves, a name under which 

 Apuleius seems to have meant the horsetail, Equisetum, 

 describing it (in c. 89) as a plant " thyrso unius radicis, 

 molli, fulvo, ita cosequato atque elimato, ut manufactus 

 videatur, foliis foaniculi similibus ;" but at present given 

 to the yarrow, Achillaea Millefolium, L. 



HOODED-, Utricularia, L. 



WATER-, Myriophyllum, L. 



and also Hottonia palustris, L. 



MILK PARSLEY, from its milky juice, 



Peucedanum palustre, Mn. 



MILK-THISTLE, a thistle supposed to have derived the 

 colour of its leaves from the milk of the Virgin Mary 

 having fallen upon them, as she nursed the infant Jesus, 

 a fable suggested by the similar one of the lily having been 

 whitened by the milk of Juno as she nursed the infant 

 Hercules. See JUNO'S ROSE. 



Silybum Marianum, DC. 



MILK-VETCH, from a belief that it increased the secretion 

 of milk in the goats that fed on it, Astragalus, L. 



