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706 



MACmERINA. A genus of cyperaceous 

 plants, belonging to the tribe Rhynclw- 

 sporece. The inflorescence is in panicles ; 

 scales of the flowers two-rowed, keeled; 

 stamens three; styles three, cleft, thick- 

 ened conically at the base ; seeds or nuts 

 pear-shaped. There are two species, one | 

 of which belongs to the "West Indies, the j 

 other to New Holland. [D. M.] 



MACH^ERIUM. An extensive genus of 

 leguminous plants belonging to Central 

 and South America, some forming large 

 timber trees, others shrubs of moderate 

 height, while others again are tall creepers, 

 often armed with prickles. Their leaves 

 are pinnate, and their flowers small, and 

 purple violet or white. Their most ob- 

 vious generic character resides in the 

 fruit, which is compressed, but more or 

 less thickened at the base where the soli- 

 tary seed is situated, while the upper part 

 is drawn out into a thin tapering wing 

 terminated by the remains of the style. 



Some of these trees are supposed to 

 yield a portion of the Rose-wood of com- 

 merce. Notwithstanding the length of 

 time Rose-wood has been known to our 

 cabinet-makers, and the large quantities 

 of it annually imported, its botanical his- 

 tory is very obscure, and it has been at 

 various times referred to trees of widely 

 different natural orders. The best descrip- 

 tion of true Rose-wood comes from Rio 

 Janeiro, and is now said to be chiefly the 

 produce of Dalbergia nigra, a tree belong- 

 ing to the same section of leguminous 

 plants as the present genus ; but there are 

 also several inferior sorts derived from 

 the same country, and these are probably 

 produced by different species of Maclue- 

 riwm, three of which, viz. M. flrmum, M. 

 incorruptibile, and 31. legale, are large trees, 

 and, moreover, bear the same Brazilian 

 name (Jacaranda) as the true Rose-wood. 

 M. Schomburgkii, a British Guiana species, 

 produces the beautifully mottled wood 

 called Itaka, Itiki, or Tiger-wood, used for 

 furniture in that country. [A. S.] 



M ACHE. (Fr.) The salad plants, Valeria- 

 nella olitoria and coronata. 



MACHOOTI. An Indian name for Poly- 

 gonum aviculare. 



MACKAYA. A genus of Indian Olacacem, 

 with a short broadly campanulate calyx 

 having a five-toothed limb ; a rotate five- 

 parted deciduous corolla ; five stamens, 

 with basal glands and sessile anthers ;. and 

 a one-celled ovary with three pendulous 

 ovules, and a three-lobed stigma. The fruit 

 is indehiscent, with one pendulous seed. 

 This plant, which is a smooth climbing 

 shrub, with alternate leaves, and small 

 flowers on long pedicels, is now referred to 

 Ertithropalum, of which two species are 

 known, natives of tropical Asia. [J. H. B.] 



MACLEANIA. A genus of Peruvian 

 shrubs, referred to the Vaccinia ceo?. They 

 have alternate leaves, and axillary flower- 

 stalks terminated by a single flower, which 

 has a five-winged calyx tube, a tubular co- 



rolla with ten monadelphous stamens at- 

 tached to its base, and whose anthers are 

 prolonged into a tube, and an ovary ad- 

 herent to the calyx tube, and with five 

 many-seeded compartments. The flowers 

 are reddish or yellow, and possess great 

 beauty. The genus commemorates Mr. 

 Maclean, a patron of Botany. [M. T. M.] 



MACLEATA. A genus of Papaveracem, 

 closely allied to Bocconia, but differing 

 from it in the fruit, which is sessile and 

 one-celled, with four to six seeds. The 

 cotyledons of the embyro are three in 

 number and equal, or two or four and then 

 unequal, in size; in germination they are 

 stalked. M. cordata, better known perhaps 

 under its old name of Bocconia, is a hand- 

 some herbaceous plant frequently grown in 

 English gardens, but native of China. The 

 leaves are stalked, somewhat cordate, irre- 

 gularly toothed at the margin, and glau- 

 cous. The flowers are borne in terminal 

 panicles. The genus is named in honour 

 of Mr. Macleay, colonial secretary in New 

 South Wales. [M. T. M.] 



MACLTJRA. This genus, which is pecu- 

 liar to the western hemisphere— one spe- 

 cies being found in the United States, one 

 in Mexico, and five in Brazil and the West 

 Indies— belongs to the Moraceo?, and con- 

 sists of middle-sized, sometimes spiny, 

 deciduous trees, with smoothish entire or 

 coarsely serrated leaves, and unisexual 

 flowers upon distinct trees ; the males 

 being in cylindrical or globular spikes or 

 in racemes, and the females forming dense 

 globular heads. The fruits are numerous 

 small seed-like achenes, enveloped in the 

 enlarged calyxes, which are packed closely 

 together upon the globose somewhat fleshy 

 receptacle, so that the fruits of a single 

 flower-head form a round aggregate fruit. 



M. aurantiaca, the Osage Orange, is a 

 native of the Southern United States, and 

 forms a spreading tree from thirty to sixty 

 feet high, but it is frequently kept dwarf 

 and used as a hedge plant, for which pur- 

 pose its strong spines render it suitable. 

 It has large entire egg-shaped leaves, and 

 inconspicuous yellowish-green flowers, pro- 

 ducing large round fruits from three to 

 five inches in diameter and of a fine golden 

 colour, very beautiful to the eye, but scarce- 

 ly eatable. Its elastic yellow wood is called 

 Bow-wood, from its being used by the 

 Indians for making bows. 



M. tinctoria, the Fustic-tree, is a large 

 usually unarmed tree, with nearly entire 

 oblong taper-pointed leaves, a native of 

 the West Indies and tropical America, 

 from whence large quantities of its bright 

 yellow wood are exported for the use of 

 dyers, who obtain from it shades of yellow, 

 brown, olive, and green. There are two 

 kinds of Fustic, technically termed the 

 Young and the Old, the former being the 

 wood of Rhus Cotinus, and the latter that 

 of the present plant. [A. S.] 



MACNABIA. A genus of heathworts, 

 distinguished by having the calyx four- 

 cleft, two of the divisions keeled, the others 



