320 



THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 



Malvaviscns continued. 



M. mollis (soft). A. scarlet ; leaves of involucel rather spreading. 

 Autumn. 1. cordate, somewhat three-lobed, soft, tomentose. 

 h. 12ft. Mexico, 1780. Shrub. (B. M. 2374, under name of 



Achania mollis.) 



MAMESTRA. A genus of thick-bodied moths, 

 belonging to the Noctuce, or Night Moths, and including 

 six species, which vary in breadth of wing from lin. 

 to Ifin. All the moths are dark-coloured, with dis- 

 tinct lines or spots; and the larvae are dull-coloured, 

 usually some shade of green or brown. The larvae 

 feed on low plants, and in gardens are very hurtful to 

 salad plants and potherbs. When full fed, they barrow 

 in the ground, and form earthen cocoons, in which they 

 become pupae in autumn, to emerge as moths in the 

 following spring. Though several species are injurious, 

 the most hurtful in gardens is the Cabbage Moth (M. 

 Brassicce), which eats its way into the hearts of Cab- 

 bages, and can hardly be removed in any way short 

 of cutting up the Cabbages. The same larva eats the 

 leaves of Dahlias, Pelargoniums, and other garden flowers. 

 See also Cabbage Caterpillars. 



MAMILLARIA. See Mamniillaria. 

 MAMM2EFORM. Formed like a nipple. 

 MAMMEA (from Mammey, its vernacular name in 

 South America). ORD. Guttiferce. A genus com- 

 prising five species of stove fruiting trees, of which 

 one is tropical American, another tropical African, 

 and the rest natives of tropical Asia and Madagascar. 

 Flowers polygamous; calyx globular, opening in two 

 valvate sepals; petals four to six; peduncles axillary, 

 one-flowered, solitary or fasciculate. Drupe indehiscent, 

 one to four-seeded. Leaves rigid, coriaceous, often 

 having pellucid dots. The species require strong heat 

 to thrive well ; and a compost of fibry, sandy loam, 

 with a little dried leaf mould, is most suitable. Pro- 

 pagated by cuttings of half-ripened shoots, taken with 

 the leaves intact, and placed under a bell glass, in 

 bottom heat. 



M. africana. See Ochrocarpus africanus. 

 M. americana (American). Mammee-tree. jL white, fragrant, 

 liin. in diameter ; peduncles one-flowered, short, scattered over 

 the stouter branches. July. fr. large, round, obsoletely three 

 or four-cornered, about the size of a cannon-ball, covered with 

 a double rind ; the outer leathery, one line in thickness, tough, 

 brownish-yellow ; the inner thin, yellow, adhering closely to 

 the flesh, which is firm, bright yellow, has a singular, pleasant 

 taste, and a sweet, aromatic smell ; but the skin and seeds are 

 very bitter and resinous. I. obovate, very blunt, quite entire, 

 Sin. to Sin. long. A. 60ft. Tropical America, 1739. A handsome 

 tree, with a thick, elegant, spreading head. Eau de Creole an 

 aromatic liqueur is distilled from the flowers of this species. 



MAMMEE-TREE. See Mammea americana. 



MAMMILLARIA (from mamilla, a little teat, 

 diminutive of mamma, the nipple; the plants are 

 covered with mammasform tubercles, spirally disposed, 

 the mammae bearing radiating spines at the apex, and 

 deciduous tomentum). Haworth, who founded the genus, 

 wrote it Mamillaria. Including Anhalonium. ORD. 

 CactecB. A genus comprising about 300 species of 

 greenhouse succulent perennials, natives of Mexico, the 

 warmer parts of North America, Brazil, and rarely 

 occurring in the West Indies and Bolivia. Flowers 

 produced towards the summit of the plants, usually in 

 a transverse zone, solitary, and growing from the axil 

 of one of the tubercles, or teats. Stem cylindrical or 

 globular, seldom exceeding lOin. or 12in. in height, and 

 usually only Sin. to Gin. high, and from lin. to Sin. in 

 diameter. The tubercles, or mamillae, range in size 

 from minute elevations scarcely I'ain. high to lin. high 

 and as much in diameter, varying in form from cylin- 

 drical, spindle-shape, conical, or ovoid, to angular and 

 irregularly pyramidal, spirally arranged around the stem, 

 and spiny at the apex. Concerning this genus, Mr. Lewis 

 Castle remarks, in his " Cactaceous Plants " : " It would be 

 very difficult to find any plants in the whole vegetable king- 



Mammillaria continued. 



dom which present such beautiful examples of symmetry 

 as the Mammillarias, and in their own family they are 

 unique in this respect ; for, though many of the grotesque 

 Opuntias, Cereuses, and Echinocactuses, possess larger 

 and more brilliant flowers, and they are surpassed in 

 horticultural value by the Phyllocactuses and Epiphyllums, 

 yet for delicacy of design they are unrivalled. A large 

 number of them resemble exquisite pieces of mechanism, 

 finished with the greatest minuteness and accuracy ; 

 others, again, might be imagined to have undergone a 

 kind of crystallisation, their whole surface being frosted 

 over with star-like spiculae, arranged with geometrical 

 precision ; and still others appear as if covered with 



the finest gossamer Strangely beautiful 



indeed are most of the Mammillarias, and in contrast 

 with their neat rosettes or stars of spines, are the rosy, 

 yellow, and white flowers, which are generally followed 

 by small, berry-like, coral-coloured fruits, that, dotted 

 amongst the spines, add another phase to the attrac- 

 tions of these plants. With so much to recommend 

 them, it is not surprising that they have become great 



Fio. 507. MAMMILLARIA (GRAFT ON CEREUS STOCK). 

 favourites with cultivators of Cacti, and with that por- 

 tion of the public who have obtained any knowledge of 

 them." 



Cultivation. Mammillarias thrive in a mixture of 

 sandy loam and finely-broken bricks and lime rubbish. 

 Many of them affect limestone districts in a wild state, 

 and to those which do not do so, the lime rubbish in 

 the soil proves beneficial under artificial conditions. 

 Plenty of light indeed, full exposure to direct sun-light 

 is desirable at all times and careful watering are all that 

 is needed to insure success. During the period of 

 growth spring and early summer more heat is neces- 

 sary than during the rest of the year. Some of the 

 delicate species thrive admirably when grafted on some 

 Cereus stock. See Fig. 507. 



A representative list of the more select species is here 

 given ; the names quoted in Continental catalogues 

 number four times more than those enumerated below. 

 M. angularls (angular-stemmed). /. rosy-purple. Stem branched, 

 4in. to Sin. high, 2in. in diameter ; tubercles conical, thick, Jin. 

 long, with a tuft of white down at the top, and four or five white 

 spines of irregular length. Mexico, 1835. A very distinct and 

 robust-growing species. 



M. applanata (flattened). JL white, tinged with red. Stem 

 simple, flattened ; tubercles four-angled, pyramidal, white, 

 woolly in axils when young. Spines straight ; outer ones seven- 

 teen to twenty, very thin, white, pale yellow, or ashy-grey ; 

 central one upright, short. Mexico. 



M. atrata (blackened). A. reddish-pink, copiously produced near 

 the apex of the stem. Stem simple, oval-cylindrical, thick ; 

 tubercles dark green, thick, conical, somewhat obtuse ; the lower 

 ones compressed, obtuse at apex ; areolaj white-villous, setose. 

 Chili (B. M. 3642.) 





