AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



389 



Moths continued. 



very much in their habits, some feeding exposed, others in 

 rolled, or in mined leaves, or in clothes; and a good 

 many make, and carry around, neat cases, for their 

 protection from injury. Some kinds do considerable 

 injury to the crops and to trees ; but the Tineina, as 

 a whole, are far more injurious to field crops than to 

 gardens. The pupae are usually protected, as in Tortricina, 

 in a web, or cocoon, spun by the larvae among their 

 food. See Hawthorn Caterpillars. 



Pteropliorina and Alucitina, or the Plume Moths, are 

 small Moths, in which each wing is divided, lengthwise, into 

 from two to six segments, or " plumes," resembling small 

 feathers. They are of small size, and do little harm to 

 cultivated plants, or to field produce in general. 



MOTTLED UMBER MOTH. See Hybernia. 



MOULD. This term is frequently used, very vaguely, 

 to denote a large number of microscopic Fungi that agree 

 in being filamentous in structure, and in having the 

 spores usually borne on the tips of certain branches, 

 sometimes scattered, at other times crowded in masses, 

 the arrangements of which are of importance in affording 

 means of distinguishing the various kinds of Moulds. The 

 Fungi included under the name are exceedingly nume- 

 rous, and belong to widely different groups. Many of 

 them live on decaying remains of animals, or of plants 

 that remain damp ; indeed, it is scarcely possible to 

 prevent their growth in food, clothes, and other house- 

 hold articles in damp houses. But, in addition, many 

 kinds also grow upon living plants, and are most de- 

 structive at times in their attacks upon certain of them ; 

 e.g., Peronospora infestans, on Potatoes ; P. gangliformis, 

 on Lettuce, &c. Only these latter kinds very greatly 

 concern gardeners. The injurious kinds will be found 

 treated of under the headings of the plants injured by them. 



Moulds are often divided into two groups, viz., the 

 Black (Dematiei), having the threads dark because of 

 thickened cell-membranes; and the White (Mucedines), 

 which have no thick cell-membranes, and cannot always 

 be clearly distinguished from the Mildews (see Mildew). 

 It is to the White Moulds that the more harmful kinds 

 belong, particularly to the genus Peronospora. A good 

 many of the Moulds, we have reason to believe, are only 

 earlier stages of Fungi that belong to groups more 

 complex in structure when mature ; whilst a consider- 

 able number have the power of producing spores that, 

 when lying in fluid which contains sufficient food, re- 

 semble the Yeast Fungus in appearance, in the mode of 

 forming new cells, and in causing fermentation in the 

 fluid if it contains fermentable substances. Good 

 ventilation, and prevention of overcrowding, are essential 

 in diminishing the risk of injury from Moulds to green- 

 house subjects. Direct applications to plants containing 

 parasites inside their tissues are useless, since the 

 parasite cannot be reached, and the host-plant itself 

 suffers. It is advisable to destroy diseased plants by 

 fire, if practicable ; and seed should not be taken from 

 these. Plants of dry soils are less liable to damage 

 from injury by Fungi than are those in damp situations. 

 Lastly, the healthier the subject, as distinct from mere 

 luxuriance, the less likely will it be to suffer injury 

 from the growth on it of Moulds. 



MOULDING-, or EARTHING-UF. The process 

 of adding or drawing soil round the base of certain 

 plants, more especially kitchen garden crops, either for 

 the purpose of blanching their stems, or for insuring a 

 greater depth above the roots, and in the limited space 

 occupied by them in comparison with the tops. Moulding, 

 or Earthing-up, is invariably attended with good results 

 when practised amongst Beans, all the plants of the 

 Brassica tribe, Peas, Potatoes, &c. It is usually per- 

 formed when the different subjects have become esta- 

 blished, and are growing freely. 



MOUNTAIN ASH. See Pyrus Aucuparia. 



MOUNTAIN AVENS. A garden name of Dryas 

 octopetala (which see). 



MOUNTAIN EBONY. See Bauhinia. 



MOUNTAIN HOLLY. See Nemopanthes. 



MOUNTAIN PARSLEY FERN. See Crypto- 

 gramme. 



MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED. See Cerastium. 



MOUTAN F2EONY. See Pajonia Moutan. 



MOVING PLANT. See Desmodium g-yrans. 



MOWING MACHINES. See Lawn Mowers. 



MUCILAGE. A turbid, shiny fluid. 



MUCRO. A small, sharp point. 



MUCRONATE, MUCRONULATE. Abruptly 

 terminated by a hard, sharp point. 



MUCUNA (its Brazilian name). STNS. Carpopogon, 

 Macroceratides, Negretia, and Stizolobium. Including 

 Macranthus. OBD. Legnminosce. A genus comprising 

 about twenty-two species of herbs, or tall or rarely 

 short and erect twining shrubs, chiefly inhabiting tropical 

 Asia and America, a few tropical African, and one from 

 the Fiji Islands. Flowers purple, red, or greenish-yellow, 

 showy, in axillary racemes. Leaves pinnate, trifoliolate, 

 often stipellate. The species are but rarely seen under 

 cultivation, except in botanic gardens. They are strong- 

 growing climbers, requiring to be planted out in good 

 loam, in some warm house, and the long shoots trained 

 near the glass. Propagated by cuttings of half-ripened 

 young wood, inserted under a bell glass, in bottom heat ; 

 or by seeds. The pods of M. pruriens and M. prurita 

 afford the Cowage, Cowhage, or Cow-itch of the Materia 

 Medica. 

 Of. imbricata (imbricated), fl. 



large ; 

 ng frc 



vexillum of corolla not 



half the length of the keel, varying from dirty white to purple ; 

 wings dark purple, shorter than the keel ; keel cylindrical nearly 

 to the end, where it curves upwards and terminates in a sharp 



spiny point; racemes large, thyrsiform, drooping, having the 

 appearance of bunches of black grapes. Legume 3in. to 4in. long, 

 about lin. broad, bent at the extremities, covered with white 



hairs, which turn black in 



I. ternate, trifoliolate, nearly 

 veined 



glabrous above, silvery (with hairs) and prominently _______ 



beneath. India. Stove. (B. M. 4945, under name of M. prurita. 

 The true 31. prurita is altogether a different plant.) 

 MUD PLANTAIN. See Heteranthera reni- 

 formis. 



MUEHLENBECEIA (named after Dr. H. G. Much- 

 lenbeck, 1798-1845, a Swiss physician.) STN. Sarcogonum. 

 ORD. Polygonew. A genus comprising about fifteen 

 species of greenhouse or hardy, often climbing, shrubs or 

 sub- shrubs, natives of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific 

 Islands, and extra-tropical South America, or the Andes. 

 Flowers small, within sheathing fasciculate bracts; fas- 

 cicles sometimes solitary in the axils, often in short, axil- 

 lary or terminal, simple or paniculate, spikes or small 

 racemes; perianth five-fid. Nut obtuse or acutely tri- 

 gonal. Leaves alternate, petiolate, sometimes small and 

 sub-orbiculate, sometimes large and cordate, deltoid, or 

 sagittate. Only three species call for description in 

 this work. If. complexa is a hardy climber of great 

 beauty. It enjoys a sunny position, and well drained or 

 sandy soil, and makes an effective subject for the upper 

 and drier parts of the rock work, where it forms a dense 

 prostrate bush. In habit, it is dense and diffuse, and, 

 from the distinct form and colour of its foliage, together 

 with the graceful shape of the spray-like branches, it is 

 most desirable and valuable for cutting purposes. All 

 the species are propagated by cuttings, which should be 

 taken in early summer, becoming thereby nicely rooted 

 before winter sets in ; the hardy ones may be put in 

 any shady position out of doors (though a frame is pre- 

 ferable), and the greenhouse species planted in pots in 

 heat. 



M. adpressa (adpressed). ft. pink, small, in many-flowered, 

 panicled spikes. Nut black, trigonous. I. iin. to 2in. long, 

 petioled, cordate or broadly oblong and truncate at base, obtuse, 



