MALV 



Ef\t Creatfurg at 23atang. 



714 



Mallow, or Mauve of the French, is em- 

 ployed medicinally on account of its highly 

 mucilaginous properties, a decoction of it 

 being used as an outward application to 

 bruises, and internally in dysentery. It is 

 in great repute amongst herb-doctors and 

 rustic practitioners generally, particularly 

 in Prance, where its dried flowers are large- 

 ly used in the preparation of a drink called 

 Tisane, or Ptisan, held to be a cure for head- 

 ache, feverish colds, and many other com- 

 plaints ; its leaves are also made into poul- 

 tices. It is a biennial, spread through Eu- 

 rope and Russian Asia, having erect some- 

 what hairy stems, roundish long-stalked 

 leaves, and reddish-purple flowers. [A. S.] 



MALVASTRTTM. A genus of Malvacece., 

 consisting of American herbs with axillary 

 scarlet or orange flowers, usually solitary, 

 but rarely clustered. Calyx usually unpro- 

 vided with any involucel, but sometimes 

 with a few deciduous hairy bracts, or three 

 persistent leafy bracts ; tube of the stamens 

 simple ; stigmas button-shaped, small ; car- 

 pels with or without a beak. [M. T. M.] 



MALVAVISCTJS. A genus of Malvacece, 

 consisting of shrubs, with entire or slightly 

 lobed leaves, and crimson flowers. The 

 calyx is surrounded by a many-leaved in- 

 volucre ; petals erect ; stigmas ten ; car- 

 pels five, berry-like, one-seeded, slightly 

 separated one from the other, or more ge- 

 nerally combined into a five-celled fruit. 

 The species are natives of tropical America 

 and Mexico. [M. T.M.] 



MALVO DO CAMPO. The Brazilian 

 name of Eielmeyera speciosa. 



MAME. The seeds of Soja hispida. 



MAMILLA. Tlje apex of the nucleus of 

 an ovule. 



MAMILLARIA. Mexico may be looked 

 upon as the head-quarters of this genus of 

 CactacecB, the great majority of the species 

 being confined to that country, compara- 

 tively few belonging to Southern Califor- 

 nia, Guatemala, Texas, Louisiana, and Mis- 

 souri ; some, however, are indigenous to 

 South America, and are found as far south 

 as Buenos Ayres and Chili. The genus is, 

 in most instances, readily distinguished 

 from its allies by the fleshy stem, of which 

 the plants solely consist, being entirely 

 covered with tubercles of a teat-like form, 

 giving rise to the generic name, from ma- 

 ntilla, a little teat. These are disposed in a 

 series of spirals, each teat being furnished 

 at the top with a tuft of radiating spines 

 proceeding from a kind of cushion. The 

 entire plants assume various forms, some 

 species being more or less cylindrical, 

 others nearly round, some pear-shaped, and 

 others club-shaped, but the majority sel- 

 dom exceed six or eight inches in height. 

 The flowers are produced towards the sum- 

 mit of the plants, and usually in a trans- 

 verse zone, each flower growing from the 

 axil of one of the teats; they are white, 

 yellow, or of different shades of red or rose- 

 colour, and remain open only during the 

 day, closing at night and opening again 



the following morning. They have the 

 tube prolonged beyond the ovary, smooth 

 and contracted below ; the numerous seg- 

 ments in several series, the outer or caly- 

 cine ones being smaller than the inner or 

 petaline ; and the stamens, which are also 

 in several series, grow to the inside of the 

 tube, being shorter than the thick style, 

 which is terminated by a three to seven- 

 rayed stigma. The fruit is an oblong or 

 club-shaped smooth berry, containing nu- 

 merous small seeds. 



M. Clava is a native of Mexico, and is 

 columnar or club-shaped, attaining a foot 

 or more in height, with the mamilloe large, 

 projecting, and of a pyramidal form, with 

 bluntly-angled sides, and having tufts of 

 white wool between them, an/1 likewise 

 upon their summit. The straw-coloured 

 flowers are very large and showy. M. coro- 

 naria is the tallest species of the genus, 

 growing, it is said, as high as five feet. In 

 our gardens, however, it is seldom more 

 than a foot high and three inches thick, of 

 a cylindrical form, with large conical ma- 

 mills bearing from thirteen to sixteen 

 pellucid white spines radiating from a 

 little tuft of white wool, and four inner 

 brown ones. The flowers are of a fine crim- 

 son colour. M.pusilla is a very pretty little 

 species, growing in crowded tufts usually 

 of a hemispherical shape. The mamillje, 

 which are about the sizeof grains of wheat, 

 have little tufts of white hairs between 

 them, and bear bundles of spines, consist- 

 ing of from four to six straight stiff inner 

 ones, and from twelve to twenty outer 

 ones like white hairs ; the flowers are 

 yellow tinged with rose-colour, and are 

 succeeded by beautiful bright crimson ber- 

 ries about the size of the inamillae. [A. S.] 



MAMMIFORM, MAMMILLARIS. Teat- 

 shaped ; conical, with a rounded apex. 



MAMMEA. A genus of Clusiacece, cha- 

 racterised by the globular calyx, which 

 opens in two valvate sepals ; by the ovary, 

 ■which contains four ovules, distributed 

 into two or four cells ; and by the fruit, 

 which is an indehisceut drupe, containing 

 one to four large seeds with very thick 

 almost consolidated cotyledons and a very 

 ''short radicle. The principal species, and 

 i the only American one, is the M. ameri- 

 j cana, a large tree, with opposite coriaceous 

 leaves marked with very numerous trans- 

 I verse but reticulated veins, and with pel- 

 ! lucid dots, and bearing white sweet-scented 

 i showy flowers on short peduncles, solitary 

 ' or clustered in the lower axils of the young 

 J shoots. The fruit, known under the name 

 of Mammee Apple, or South American Apri- 

 cot, is very much esteemed in tropical coun- 

 tries. It often attains the size of a child's 

 head, and is of a yellow colour. The outer 

 rind and the pulp which immediately sur- 

 rounds the seeds are very bitter, but the 

 intermediate flesh is sweet and aromatic, 

 and is eaten cut into slices and steeped in 

 wine, or made into preserves of various 

 kinds. The seeds, often as lame as hen's 

 eggs, are used as anthelmintics; an aro- 

 i matic liqueur called eau cle Creole is distilled 



