21 



5Tt)F CwaSurp nf 3S0tatu>. 



[marg 



off until the part which hears it is per- 

 fected, but withering long before that 

 time, as the flowers of Orobanche. 



MARCETIA. Little rigid mostly hairy 

 undershrubs, generally with small heath- 

 like leaves, and small white or reddish 

 flowers in the upper leaf-axils. The genus 

 belongs to Melastomacece, and numbers 

 abouta dozen species, all Braziliau. It has 

 tetraraerous flowers, with a campanulate 

 subulate-toothed calyx ; mostly acumi- 

 nate petals ; eight stamens with subulate 

 somewhat curved anthers opening by a 

 single pore, and the connective scarcely 

 prolonged at the base; and a four or 

 rarely three-celled ovary bearing a Aliform 

 style and punctiform stigma. [A. S.] 



MARCGRAVIACE.E. (Harcgraviads.) A 

 natural family of dicotyledons belonging 

 to Lindley's guttiferal alliance of hypo- 

 gynous Exogens. Trees or shrubs, with 

 alternate entire simple leathery and ex- 

 | stipulate leaves. Flowers often furnished 

 j with pitcher-like bracts; sepals two to 

 j seven, coriaceous and persistent; corolla 

 hypogynous of five petals, or gamopetalous 

 j calyptriform ; stamens usually indefinite, 

 I very rarely five, hypogynous, the filaments 

 dilated at the base, the anthers Ions:, erect, 

 introrse; ovary single, one-celled; style 

 | one ; stigma often capitate. Fruit coria- 

 ceous, indehiscent, or dehiscing by valves 

 in a loculicidal manner, the placentas being 

 parietal and forming spurious dissepi- 

 ments ; seeds indefinite, minute. They 

 occur chiefly in the warmer parts of Ame- 

 rica. There are four genera, and about two 

 dozen species. Examples : Marcciravia, No- 

 rantea. [J. H. B.j 



MARCGRAYIA. One of the few genera 

 of Marcgraviacea.', an order now reduced by 

 some botanists to a section of Ternstramia- 

 cece. There are but few species, all be- 

 longing to tropical America, and all large 

 climbing or almost epiphytal shrubs, with 

 thick leathery quite entire leaves on short 

 stalks, and long-stalked flowers in terminal 

 umbels or corymb-formed racemes. It is 

 distinguished from its allies by its petals ! 

 being united into a cap-like corolla, which 

 becomes detached round its base and falls 

 oft in a single piece ; also by its stamens 



I being indefinite, or never less than twelve; i 

 and by its incompletely four to twelve- 



I celled ovary. In the West Indies, M. urn- ! 

 bellata was formerly considered to posspss ' 

 medicinal properties. [A. S.] | 



MARCH. An old name of Parsley. 



MARCHANTIACE2E. An important sec- 

 tion of liverworts, distinguished from 

 other members by very striking characters. 

 The frond is never leafy, frequently forked, 

 with the surface divided into little are;e 

 and porous. The male fruit is immersed 

 in sessile or stalked discoid or peltate re- 

 ceptacles. The capsules are disposed sym- 

 metrically on the under side of stalked 

 wheel-shaped receptacles, and are either 

 valvate or bursting irregularly, or very 

 rarely solitary and sessile, or merely ' 



grouped together. The stalk is often 

 sheathed ; and the spores are mixed with 

 elaters. They are divided into three natural 

 orders :— 



1. TARGiONiEiE : with single sessile cap- 



sules, sometimes grouped together. 



2. JECOR.Aiti.a3 : with capsules on the under 



side of a common stalked receptacle. 



3. Luxularie^e : with capsules on a com- 



mon peduncle. 

 They grow in moist places, spreading 

 over the ground, stones, &c, and attached 

 by delicate rooting fibres. Besides the re- 

 gular fruit, there are often separate organs 

 which contain gemmae, by means of which 

 the plants are multiplied. The archegones 

 are produced on the frond itself, and give 

 rise to the fruit, not to a new plant, and the 

 s_permatozoids are like those of Chara, but 

 have fewer volutions in the spiral, which 

 is in many cases at length completely ex- 

 panded. Marchantia polymorpha, which 

 occurs everywhere on shady walks and on 

 the soil of garden-pots, is the most familiar 

 example, and will amply reward a close in- 

 spection. It is a popular remedy, along 

 with some other allied species, for jaundice 

 and consumption , but its virtues are in 

 all probability imaginary. [M. J. B.] 



MARCKEA. A genus named in honour 

 of the famous French naturalist Lamarck, 

 and belonging to the order Atropacece. 

 The species is a climbing shrub, native of 

 Guiana, with axillary clusters of scarlet 

 flowers, having a tubular calyx : a funnel- 

 shaped corolla, divided into five obtuse 

 segments ; five stamens, concealed within 

 the tube of the corolla, to which they are 

 adherent, the anthers opening longitudi- 

 nally ; and a two-celled ovary with nume- 

 rous ovules in each compartment, and a 

 simple style. Fruit capsular, two-valved, 

 many-seeded. [M. T. M.] 



MAREBLOBS. Caltlia palustris. 



MARE'S-TAIL. Hippuris. 



MARGINAL. Belonging to the margin 

 or edge of anything. 

 MARGINARIA. Goni&phlebium. 



MARGINATE. Furnished with an edge 

 of a different texture from the remainder 

 of the body. 



MARGOSA-TREE. Melia Azadirachta. 



MARGOTIA. A genus of campylosper- 

 mous Umbellifercz, characterised by the 

 inner face of the seed being furrowed in- 

 stead of flat. Its nearest ally is Elccosdi- 

 num, from which it differs in the white 

 deeply bilobed petals with long incurved 

 ton<?ue-like apices. The only known species, 

 Jf. hipcrpitioides, found in Spain, Portugal, 

 and North Africa, is a smooth perennial 

 herb with a tall erect naked stem, bearing 

 many-rayed umbels of small white flowers 

 which, as well as the leaves, are like those 

 of the carrot. The carpels have the five 

 primary ribs obsolete, and the four second- 

 ary produced into thin wings, the outer 

 two of which are the broadest. They se- 

 crete an abundance of aromatic oil. which 



3A 



