MEN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



M ER 



117 



otherwise they will not produce ripe seeds in this country. 

 When the plants are come up about an inch high, they should 

 be each transplanted into a separate halfpenny pot filled with 

 light rich earth, and plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, 

 being careful to shade them from the sun until they have 

 taken new root ; after which time they must be constantly 

 watered every other day in warm weather, and should have 

 fresh air every day admitted to them, in proportion to the 

 warmth of the season, and the heat of the bed in which they 

 are plunged. In about six weeks or two months after trans- 

 planting, if the plants have made a good progress, they will 

 have filled the pots with their roots, and should be' shifted 

 into larger pots filled with light rich earth, and then plunged 

 into the bark-bed in the stove, that they may have room to 

 grow in height, observing as before to water them duly, as also 

 to admit fresh air to them every day in warm weather. With 

 this management they will grow three feet high, and produce 

 ripe seeds at the end of August or beginning of September. 



2. Mentzelia Hispida. Stem forked; flowers solitary, at 

 the forks of the stem ; petals entire, acutely pointed. Native 

 of Mexico. 



Menyantlies ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 five-parted, erect, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel- 

 form ; tube cylindric, funnel-form, short; border five-cleft 

 beyond the middle ; clefts reflex-spreading, blunt, conspi- 

 cuously shaggy. Stamina: filamenta five, awl-shaped, short; 

 antherse acute, bifid at the base, erect. Pistil: germen 

 conical ; style cylindric, almost the length of the corolla ; 

 stigma bifid, compressed. Pericarp: capsule ovate, sur- 

 rounded by the calix, one-celled. Seeds : many, ovate, small. 

 Observe. The first species was distinguished by the petals 

 being ciliate, not shaggy. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Co- 

 rolla: shaggy. Stigma: bifid. Capsule: one-celled. 



The species are, 



1. Menyanthes Nymphoides; Fringed Buckbean, or Small 

 Yellow Water Lily. Leaves cordate, quite entire ; corollas 

 ciliate. Root perennial, long, and stringy, as are also the 

 stems ; these are smooth, round, and jointed. It flowers from 

 June to August. Native of Denmark, Holland, Germany, 

 Piedmont, Siberia, and England, in large ditches and slow 

 streams. It is found in little recesses upon the banks of the 

 Thames, as near Walton bridge, Botley bridge, Godstow bridge, 

 and Hinksey ferry, in Oxfordshire ; and in the river Cam, at 

 Streathem ferry ; and very commonly in the fens of Ely. 



2. Menyanthes Indica ; Indian Buckbean. Leaves cor- 

 date, subcrenate ; petioles floriferous ; corollas hairy within. 

 Native of both Indies. Sir William Jones, in his Select 

 Indian Plants, describes another species, probably only a 

 variety, with ten stamina, five of which are fertile. He calls 

 it Cumada, or Delight of the Water, which seems to be a 

 general name for beautiful aquatic flowers. 



3. Menyanthes Ovata; Cape Buckbean. Leaves ovate, 

 petioled ; stem panicled. This has the appearance of Alisma. 

 Native of the Cape. 



4. Menyanthes Trifoliata; Common Buckbean, or Marsh 

 Trefoil. Leaves ternate ; corolla extremely hairy on the 

 upper side. Root perennial, creeping, long, jointed, and 

 fibrous ; stem procumbent, various in length according to 

 situation, covered by the sheaths of the leaves, which are on 

 round striated petioles ; corolla outwardly rose-coloured, in- 

 wardly white. An infusion of the leaves is extremely bitter, 

 and of late years has been in common use as an alterative 

 and aperient in impurities of the humours, and some hydropic 

 and rheumatic complaints. A drachm in powder purges and 

 vomits. It is sometimes given to destroy worms. As an 



active and eccophrotic bitter, it seems not ill adapted to 

 supply the want of bile in the primce vice ; and thus may be 

 of use in protracted jaundice, and other biliary obstructions. 

 Cullen mentions several instances of its good effects in some 

 cutaneous diseases of the herpetic and seemingly cancerous 

 kind. It may be necessary for delicate stomachs to join 

 some grateful aromatic with the infusion. In a scarcity of 

 hops, this plant is used in the north of Europe to give a bitter 

 to beer; two ounces will supply the place of a pound of 

 hops. The powdered roots are sometimes used in Lapland 

 instead of bread, but they are unpalatable. Some say that 

 sheep will eat it, and that it cures them of the rot. Meyrick 

 observes, that it promotes the fluid secretions of the body, 

 loosens the belly, and is good in the jaundice, dropsy, scurvy, 

 rheumatism, ague, and scrofulous disorders. For 1 the dropsy, 

 the best method is to bruise the plant, and extract the juice 

 with a little white wine. In scorbutic complaints, a strong 

 infusion should be drank for a considerable time, to the 

 amount of three half pints or a quart a day. For the ague, 

 it must be dried and finely powdered, in which state half a 

 drachm is a full dose, and, if properly repeated, will /re- 

 quently effect a cure when most other means prove ineffec- 

 tual. Boerhaave says, the juice of the leaves mingled with 

 whey is serviceable in the gout. This was formerly called 

 Marsh Trefoil, and Marsh Claver or Clover. The Germans 

 call it Bocsbohne ; the Danes, Bukkeblade. It flowers from 

 May to July, and is found in wet boggy meadows, in ditches, 

 and upon the sides of ponds and lakes : as in Battersea 

 meadows; about the island of St. Helena; near Rotherhithe; 

 about Staines ; on Bromley Common ; between Farnborough 

 and Caston Mark; at Csesar's Camp near Bromley; upon 

 Hayes Common, Hampstead Heath, Harefie4d Moor, and at 

 several pl;ce8 in Cambridgeshire. This plant is frequently 

 rooted out by the simplers. This plant has not been culti- 

 vated in gardens: it deserves cultivation, however; and to 

 such as wish to have it flower in perfection, Mr. Curtis re- 

 commends to collect the roots in spring or autumn, to put 

 them in a large pot having a hole in the bottom, and filled 

 with bog-earth, and to immerse the pot about two-thirds of 

 its depth in water. 



5. Menyanthes Hydrophyllum ; Water-leaf Buckbean. 

 Leaves cordate, quite entire ; flowers axillary, heaped^, nec- 

 tariferous. Native of Cochin-china. 



Mercurialis ; a genus of the class Dioecia, order Ennean- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: perianth 

 three-parted; parts ovate-lanceolate, concave, spreading. 

 Corolla: none, except the calix. Stamina: filamenta nine 

 or twelve, capillary, straight, the length of the calix ; antheree 

 globular, twin. Female. Calix: perianth as in the male. 

 Corolla : none ; nectaries two, awl-shaped points, one on 

 each side of the germen, impressed on the groove of the 

 germen. Pistil: germen roundish, compressed, scored on 

 each side, hispid ; styles two, reflex, horned, hispid ; stigmas 

 acute, reflex. Pericarp: capsule roundish, shaped like the 

 scrotum, twin, two-celled. Seeds: solitary, roundish. ES- 

 SENTIAL CHARACTER. Male. Calix: three-parted. Corolla: 

 none. Stamina : nine or twelve. Antherce: globular, twin. Fe- 

 male. Calix : three-parted. Corolla : none. Styles : two. Cap- 

 sules: dicoccous, two-celled, one-seeded. The species are, 



1. Mercurialis Perennis ; Dog's Mercury. Stem quite 

 simple ; leaves rugged. Root perennial, creeping, white, very 

 fibrous. The male and female plants are rarely found inter- 

 mixed, each sort usually growing in large patches; whence it 

 is probable that this plant, which increases by the root, rarely 

 produces perfect seeds. In the third edition of Ray's Synopsit 

 there is a very circumstantial relation from Sir Hans Sloane, 



