AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



317 



Mahurea continued. 



It thrives in a compost of sandy peat and fibry loam. 

 Propagated, during summer, by cuttings of half-ripened 

 shoots, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in gentle 

 bottom heat. 

 M. palustris (marsh-loving). /. purplish, terminal, racemose, 



hardly lin. in diameter. May. I. oblong, coriaceous, entire, full of 



pellucid clots, h. 15ft. 1820. 



MAIANTHEMUM (from maios, May, and anthemon, 

 a blossom ; in allusion to the flowering period of the 

 plant). STNS. Bifolium, Maia, Sciophylla, and Styrandra. 

 ORD. LiliaceoB. A monotypic genus, the species being a 

 hardy erect, glabrous or puberulous, bulbous plant, with 

 a slender, creeping rootstock. For culture, see Smila- 

 cina. 



M. bifolium (two-leaved), fl. white ; perianth scarcely one line 

 long ; raceme somewhat dense, twelve to thirty-flowered ; pedicels 

 solitary or twin, very slender, articulated at apex. May. I. two, 

 placed above the middle of the stem, petiolate, cordate-ovate, 

 membranous, persistent, 2in. to Sin. long, acute, costate, 

 thickly veined, h. 4in. to Sin. North temperate regions (Britain). 

 SYNS. Convallaria bifolia (B. M. 510; F. D. 291), Smilacina bi- 

 folia, and S. canadensis. 



MAIDENHAIR. The common name for Adiantum 

 Capillus-Veneris (which see). 



MAIDENHAIR-TREE. See Oinkgo. 



MAIDEN FINE. See Dianthus deltoides. 



MAIDEN PLUM. See Comocladia. 



MAIDEN TREE. A term applied to an untrained 

 fruit tree the first year after being worked. 



MAIRIA (so called after Professor le Maire, of Ghent, 

 who collected this plant at the Cape). OED. Compositce. 

 A genus containing ten species of half-hardy or green- 

 house herbs or sub-shrubs, all natives of South Africa. 

 Flower-heads intermediate or rather large; ray-florets 

 purplish, rose, or pink ; disk-florets yellow ; involucre 

 campanulate or hemispherical ; receptacle flat, naked. 

 Leaves radical or alternate. The species succeed in a 

 compost of turfy loam and peat, and require an abundance 

 of moisture at nearly all times. Propagated, in spring, 

 by divisions ; or by seeds, sown in a cold frame. Probably 

 the only species yet introduced is the one here described. 



M. crenata (scolloped). fl.-heads solitary, lin. to liin. in diameter, 

 with a bright purple ray and a yellow disk ; scape rising from 

 lin. to 6in. from the centre of the rosette. April. I. in a dense 

 rosette, deep green, fleshy, oblong-ovate in outline, tapering 

 at the base into a petiole ; margins distantly toothed. Plant 

 stemless. 1820. Greenhouse or half-hardy. (B. B. 855, under 

 name of Gerberia crenata.) 



MAIZE. See Zea Mays. 



MAJORANA. Included under Origanum (which 



see). 



MALABAILA (named after Count Malabaila von 

 Canal, a former Director of the Botanic Gardens at 

 Prague). SYN. Leiotulus. ORD. Umbelliferce. A genus 

 comprising about half -a- score species of hardy perennial, 

 often glabrous herbs, similar in habit to Peucedanum, but 

 with broader leaves. They are natives of South-eastern 

 Europe, Eastern Africa, and Western Asia. Flowers 

 yellowish, in compound, many-rayed umbels; calyx teeth 

 obsolete or minute ; petals rather broad, acuminate, in- 

 flexed (often obtuse or retuse). Involucral bracts few or 

 none. Fruit orbiculate or rarely obovate, flat, compressed. 

 Leaves pinnate or pinnately decompound ; segments often 

 broad, incised-toothed. Seeds of the undermentioned 

 species should be sown in the open ground, in spring. 



M. Opoponax (Opoponax). /., petals roundish, entire, involute ; 

 styles very short. June and July. fr. girded by a dilated, convex 

 margin. 1. bipinnate ; leaflets unequally cordate, crenated, 

 obtuse, hairy, especially beneath. Sheaths at the flowering 

 branches spathaceous, and sometimes destitute of leaves, h. 6ft. 

 South Europe, 1640. SYNS. Opoponax Chironium, Pastinaca 

 Opoponax (under which name it is figured in S. F. G. 288). 



M. pimpinellsefolia (Pimpinella -leaved), fl., petals slightly 

 hairy outside. Involucre of one to three leaves ; involucels of 



Malabaila continued. 



four or five leaves, dimidiate, deciduous. July and August. 

 fr. orbicular. 1. bipinnatifid, pubescent ; segments cnneated, 

 deeply serrated, lower ones reflexed, upper ones linear-lanceo- 

 late. Stem angular, branched, h. 2ft. Caucasus, Ac., 18ia 



MALABAR LEAF. A common name of Cinna- 

 momum Malabathrv.m. 



MALACHADENIA. Included under Bidbo- 

 phyllum. 



MALACHODENDRON. Included under Stuartia 

 (which see). 



MALACHRA (name used by Pliny to denote a Per- 

 sian tree). ORD. Malvaceae. A genus comprising five or 

 six species of stove hispid herbs, all indigenous to the 

 warmer parts of America, one or two being also broadly 

 dispersed over the warmer parts of Asia and Africa. 

 Flowers yellow, white, or rose, in dense, axillary or terminal 

 heads, with leafy involucral bracts ; calyx five-toothed or 

 cut ; column shorter than the stamens. Leaves angular 

 or lobed. The species are of no great horticultural value. 

 M. fasciata requires to be raised from seed, in a hot- 

 house, and, when large enough, to be placed singly into 

 small pots. 

 M. fasciata (fasciate). fl. rose; heads shortly pedunculate, 



three-leaved, about five-flowered. August and September. 



1. almost round, obsoletely lobed. Stems villous. h. 1ft. 



Caraccas, 1819. (B. R. 467.) 



MALACOCARFUS (from malakos, soft, and Tcarpos, 

 a fruit; alluding to the juicy fruits). ORD. Cacteae. 

 This genus, now included, by Bentham and Hooker, under 

 Echinocactns, is composed of the smooth-fruited species 

 of that genus (which see for culture). 



FIG. 504. MALACOCARPUS ERINACEUS. 



M. erlnaceus (prickly), fl. straw-coloured, when in bud 

 clothed with long silky brown hairs. Summer. Plant nearly 

 bullet-shaped, very slightly depressed at top, with eighteen more 

 or less spirally-curved ribs. Spines on young individuals, yellow ; 

 on older ones horn-like, brownish ; eight or ten (seldom more) 

 outer ones, and a single central erect one. Brazil. See Fig. 504, 

 for which we are indebted to Herr Fr. Ad. Haage, jun., of Erfurt, 

 Germany. 



MALACOID. Having a mucilaginous texture. 

 MALAXIS (from malaxis, tenderness ; in allusion 

 to the nature of the species). ORD. Orcliidece. A 

 monotypic genus. The species is a curious and in- 

 teresting native Orchid, rarely seen in cultivation. It 

 grows naturally in spongy bogs, and would probably 

 thrive if naturalised in similar situations. Propagated 

 by divisions of the roots. 



M. paludosa (marsh-loving), fl. greenish-yellow, small ; lip 

 cordate at the base, embracing the column ; sepals ovate or 

 broadly lanceolate ; raceme long, slender, terminal. July. 

 I. from two to four, ovate, rough at the extremity, h. 3in. to 4m. 

 Europe (Britain). (G. C. n. s., xxi. 144 ; Sy. En. B. 1489.) 



