1996 



MARCGRAVIA 



MARCGRAVIA (Georg Marcgraaf, born 1610, a 

 very early writer on Brazilian natural history)- Some- 

 times spelled Marcgraavia and Marcgrafia. Marcgra- 

 vidcese; by some authorities included in Ternstrcemiucese. 

 Climbing epiphytic shrubs, one of which is offered 

 abroad as a warmhouse plant: Ivs. entire, short-stalked, 

 coriaceous: fls. in terminal umbels or racemes, the 

 corolla cap-like and falling as a single piece; sepals 6, 

 2 smaller; stamens mostly many (sometimes as few 

 as 12) : fr. globose to ovoid, more or less fleshy, with 

 numerous seeds. Species probably 40, many of them 

 recently described in Trop. Amer. M. umbellate, Linn., 

 W. Indies and S. Amer., is a polymorphous plant, the 

 sterile shoots creeping and rooting: Ivs. on the rooting 

 shoots distichous, nearly sessile, cordate and emargi- 

 nate, on the other shoots oblong to linear: fls. greenish, 

 umbellate: fr. with red pulp: clings to trees by roots. 



MARCHANTIA (Marchant, French botanist). Mar- 

 chantiaceae. A common liverwort (one of the Bryophyta; 

 see p. 6, Vol. I) spreading its If .-like forking thallus on 

 moist earth. M. polymorpha, Linn., has been offered by 

 dealers in native plants, the sods of it being sold for 

 colonizing in rock-gardens. It frequently grows on 

 damp sills and walls in greenhouses. The flat thallus 

 is often 4-5 in. long and 1 in. or more wide, from which 

 rise peduncles 1 in. high, bearing the antheridial disk or 

 shield and the star-like carpocephalum on similar stalks 

 1-3 in. high. 



MARGUERITE, a popular name for certain daisy-like 

 plants, the word related in origin to the Greek for 

 pearl, as also margaritaceous, "pearly;" from the same 

 root is derived the personal name Margaret and others. 

 In florist's usage, the marguerites are species of Chrys- 

 anthemum. Blue marguerite is Felicia amelloides, and 

 Reine marguerite of the French is the China aster. There 

 are two types of marguerites, the common one, or Paris 

 daisy, with coarse green foliage, and the glaucous mar- 

 guerites, with finer cut glaucous foliage. The former, 

 Chrysanthemum frutescens, is better for cut-flowers. The 

 latter, C. anethifolium, is probably better for large 

 specimens. 



Marguerites are standard useful plants with florists 

 and in the conservatories of amateurs, being of easy 

 culture and remarkably free from enemies. They are 

 cultivated for two distinct purposes, for cut-flowers 

 and for specimen plants, young plants being used for 

 the former purpose, and older ones for the latter. For 

 cut-flowers, the cuttings are rooted in spring, and 

 the florists usually keep the plants in pots all summer 

 outdoors, though this is not necessary for amateurs, 

 and flowers are produced during the following winter. 

 It is sometimes said that marguerites do not lift well 

 in the fall after being planted out all summer in the 

 garden, and that unrestricted root-room makes the 

 plants too large for the best production of cut-flowers. 

 The principles underlying the matter are as follows: In 

 turning plants out of pots into the open ground in 

 spring, a plant that has filled its pot well with roots 

 tends to make a much more compact root-system in 

 the garden than the plant that had but few roots in 

 its pot, and the former plant is easily lifted in the fall 

 and with less damage to the roots. As a matter of 

 fact, marguerites do not belong to the class of plants 

 that are difficult to lift in the fall, and it is only a ques- 

 tion of starting the cuttings early enough in spring to get 

 the plant moderately pot-bound before it is planted out 

 into the open ground. Specimen plants are most attrac- 

 tive in the second winter following the spring in which 

 cuttings were struck. After that they are likely to 

 become too large and straggling. While in the garden, 

 the flowers should not be allowed to form, if the main 

 object is high-grade cut-flowers in quantity for the 

 winter. Old plants that are unfit for further use in the 

 conservatory may be turned out in summer and will 



furnish scattering bloom all summer, though the 

 flowers are likely to be rather small. If there were 

 sufficient demand, it could be easily managed to have 

 flowers in every month of the year. It is a great pity 

 to cut marguerites without any foliage. The rule is that 

 all flowers look best with some foliage, especially their 

 own. With a little forethought, just as many flowers 

 can be secured, and they will look much prettier and 

 last longer. There are very few conservatories without 

 some marguerites. An excellent plan is to have a num- 

 ber of plants in 6-inch pots from cuttings struck the 

 previous spring. A plant looks bad at first when the 

 flowers have been removed on sprays a foot long, but 

 in a short time they are ready for cutting again. With 

 a little management, a succession of flowers can be 

 maintained without making all the plants thin or 

 unsightly. Such sprays will last a week or two in water, 

 and the opening of the larger buds is an additional 

 feature of beauty which is lost if flowers are cut with 

 short stems and without foliage. (Robert Shore.) 



MARGYRICARPUS (Greek, pearly fruit; referring to 

 the white berries). Rosacese. South American sub- 

 shrubs, of which M. setosus is a heath-like plant cult, 

 in rockeries for its numerous small white berries, which 

 are seen to best advantage against dark background. 

 The nearest genus of garden value is Acaena, which has 

 fls. on heads or spikes, while those of Margyricarpus are 

 solitary and axillary. Branching shrubs with incon- 

 spicuous fls. which are sessile and have no petals: Ivs. 

 alternate, crowded, overlapping: calyx-tube persistent; 

 lobes 4-5; ovary 1, in the calyx-tube, with very short 

 style; ovule solitary, hanging from the top of the cell: fr. 

 a coriaceous achene. Species a half-dozen and more, in 

 temperate parts of mountains and south to Patagonia. 



setdsus, Ruiz. & Pav. PEARL FRUIT. Low-growing 

 little evergreen (about 1 ft.): Ivs. odd-pinnate with 

 subulate more or less reflexed Ifts. : fls. very small, 

 green, sessile in the axils: fr. white, showy and persist- 

 ing for some time, small. Peru, Chile. Hardy in 

 England. Intro, in S. Calif. 



M. htfbridus is offered abroad as a "pretty evergreen alpine 

 shrub thickly studded with rose-colored berries." T H B 



MARICA (meaning doubtful; perhaps from the 

 verb to flag). Iridacese. Tropical plants allied to Iris, 

 but with shorter-lived flowers and convolute inner 

 segments. 



Rootstock a short rhizome: Ivs. sword-shaped, 2- 

 ranked: fls. blue, yellow or white, very fugitive, in 

 clusters on a flat and If.-like peduncle, 2-4 in. across, 

 the outer segms. large, white or blue, the inner ones 

 smaller, fiddle-shaped, with beautiful coloring; stamens 

 short and erect, the filaments distinct: caps, oblong, 

 3-valved, many-seeded. About a dozen perennial 

 herbs, in Trop. Amer. and 1 in Guinea (Afr.) They are 

 planted in the fall, and are hardy with winter covering 

 in the warmer parts. The genus is nearest to Cypella, 

 but the style-crests are petal-like, while in Cypella they 

 are spur-like or flattened; in Cypella the Ivs. are plicate 

 rather than distichous and the rootstock is bulbous. 



A. Outer segms. white, or marked at the base with brown 

 and yellow. 



gracilis, Herb. Lvs. 6-8 in a tuft, sword-shaped, 

 1-1^2 ft. long, J^-l in. broad: peduncle long and flat, 

 bearing fls. at some distance from the end and some- 

 times taking root from the top; fls. 2 in. across; outer 

 segms. obovate, white, with cross-marks at base of yel- 

 low and brown; inner segms. small, reflexed, blue. Mex. 

 to Brazil. B.M. 3713. Gn. 63, p. 37. 



Northiana, Ker. Lvs. about 8 in a tuft, sword- 

 shaped, bright green, about 2 ft. long and 1^-2 in. 

 broad: peduncle 3 ft. long, as broad as the Ivs., with 

 about 2 clusters near the apex; fls. 3-4 in. across; outer 

 segms. pure white and obovate, variegated on the claw; 



