MIX 



L 544 ] 



MOI 



ance ; and in the cottage-gardens thus 

 formed, several species of vegetables, 

 such as beans and potatoes, will produce 

 very excellent crops, in the very soils in 

 which they would have perished previous to 

 their mixture. The permanent advantage of 

 mixing soils, too, is not confined to merely 

 those entirely of an earthy composition : 

 earths which contain inert organic matter, 

 such as peat or moss earth, are highly 

 valuable additions to some soils. Thus, 

 peat earth was successfully added to the 

 sandy soils of Merionethshire by Sir 

 Eobert Vaughan. The Cheshire farmers 

 add a mixture of moss and calcareous 

 earth to their tight- bound earths, the 

 effect of which they describe as having ' a 

 loosening operation ; ' that is, it renders 

 the soil of their strong clays less tena- 

 cious, and, consequently, promotes the 

 ready access of the moisture and gases 

 of the atmosphere to the roots. The 

 cultivator sometimes -deludes himself 

 with the conclusion that applying sand, 

 or marl, or clay, to a poor soil, merely 

 serves to freshen it for a time, and that 

 the effects of such applications are ap- 

 parent for only a limited period. Some 

 comparative experiments, however, which 

 were made sixteen years since, on some 

 poor, hungry heath -land, in Norfolk, have 

 up to this time served to demonstrate 

 the error of such a conclusion. In these 

 experiments the ground was marled 

 with twenty cubic yards only per acre, 

 and the same compost; it was then 

 planted with a proper mixture of forest 

 trees, and by the side of it a portion of 

 the heath, in a state of nature, was also 

 planted with the same mixture of de- 

 ciduous and fir-trees. 



" Sixteen years have annually served to 

 demonstrate, by the luxuriance of the 

 marled wood, the permanent effect pro- 

 duced by a mixture of soils. The growth 

 of the trees has been there rapid and 

 permanent; but on the adjoining soil 

 the trees have been stunted in their 

 growth, miserable in appearance, and 

 profitless to their owner. 



"Another, but the least commonly prac- 

 tised mode of improving the staple of a 

 soil by earthy addition, is claying; a 

 system of fertilising, the good effects of 

 which are much less immediately apparent 

 than chalking, and hence one of the 

 chief causes of its disuse. It requires 

 some little time to elapse, and some 

 stirring of the soil, before the clay is so 



well mixed with a sandy soil as to produce 

 that general increased attraction and re- 

 tentive power for the atmospheric mois- 

 ture, which ever constitutes the chief 

 good result of claying poor scils. Clay 

 must be, moreover, applied in rather 

 larger proportions to the soil than chalk ; 

 for not only is its application rarely re- 

 quired as a direct food for plants for the 

 mere alumina which it contains, since 

 this earth enters into the composition of 

 plants in very small proportion, but there 

 is also another reason for a more liberal 

 addition of clay being required, which is 

 thp impure state in which the alumina 

 exists in what are commonly called clay 

 soils." Farm Encyc. 



MODE'CCA. (The Indian name. Nat. 

 ord., Papayads [Papayacesel. Linn., 22- 

 Dicecia 5-Pentandria. Alhecl to Carica.) 



Stove evergreen climbing plants, resembling; 

 Passion-flowers, from the East Indies. Cuttings 

 of young shoots in May, in sandy soil, under a 

 bell-glass, and in heat ; peat and loam. Winter 

 temp., 48 to 55; summer, 60 to 75. 

 M . tritoba'ta (three-lobed). 10. August. 181, 



tubero'sa (tuberous). 10. August. 1822. 



MODI'OLA. (From modiolus, the nave 

 of a wheel ; referring to the formation of 

 the seed-vessel. Nat. ord., Mallowworts 

 [Malvaceae]. Linn., IQ-Monadelphia 8- 

 Polygynia. Allied to the Mallow.) 



Seeds in spring ; division of the two herbaceous 

 kinds at the same time, and by cuttings of 

 the young shoots under a hand-light; common, 

 sandy loam. The herbaceous require a dry, 

 sheltered place, or the protection of a cold pit 

 during the winter. 



M. Carotinia'na (Carolina). Red. June. N, Amer. 

 1723. Hardy annual. 



decu'mbens (lying-down). Red. June. S. 



Amer. 1815. Half-hardy herbaceous. 



prostra'ta (lying-flat). Scarlet." May. Brazil. 



1806. Half-hardy herbaceous. 



MOEKHI'NGIA. (Named after P. Mdcr- 

 hing, a German botanist. Nat. ord., 

 Cloveworts [Caryophyllacese'j. Linn., 8- 

 Octandria 2-Diyynia. Allied to Arenaria.) 



Hardy herbaceous perennials, from south ef 

 Europe. Division of the plant in spring ; com- 

 mon, sandy soil, and dry, elevated positions ; 

 suited for steep rock-works. 

 M. musco'sa (mossy). . Purple. June. 17/5. 



sed//o'/ia(sedum-leaved). . White, red. June. 



1823. 



MO'HRIA. (Named after M. Mohr, a 

 German botanist. Nat. ord., Ferns [Poly- 

 podiacese]. Linn., 2-i-Cryptogamia 1-Fi- 

 lices.) 



Greenhouse Fern. See FERNS. 

 M. thun'fraga (frankincense). Brown, yellow. 



June. Cape of Good Hope. 1842. 

 MOIST STOVE. A stove with a moist 

 atmosphere. See SIOYE. 



