nearly allied to Mimulus, of which it has 

 the corolla stamens and capsule ; but 

 the calyx is broadly campanulate and 

 deeply five-lobed. It consists of three or 

 four South Asiatic or Australian herbs, 

 either low branching annuals or perennial 

 through their creeping runners. They are 

 uninteresting weeds, the most common of 

 them, Jf. rugosus, very widely spread over 

 tropical Asia. 



MAZZARD. The wild Cerasus avium. 

 MEADOW BEAUTY. An American 

 name for Rhexia. 



MEAD-SWEET, MEADWORT, or MEA- 

 DOW-SWEET. Spircea Ulmaria. 



MEAL-BERRY. Arctostaphylos uvaursi. 



MEALY-TREE. Viburnum Lantana. 



MECHOACAN ROOT. Batatas Jalapa. 



MECONELLA A curious little papave- 

 raceous genus, standing between Platyste- 

 mon and Hypecoum, agreeing with the 

 former in its foliage, floral envelopes, and 

 dilated filaments, and with the latter in 

 having definite stamens. Its characteris- 

 tic marks are three sepals, five or six petals, 

 four to six stamens with membranaceous 

 filaments dilated upwards, and short an- 

 thers, three rarely four linear sessile stig- 

 | mas, and a slender pod-shaped three rarely 

 four-celled capsule, containing numerous 

 smooth shining seeds. M. oregana is a 

 dwarf smooth annual, with a rosulate tuft 

 of spathulate root leaves, dichotomously 

 forked slender stems bearing linear leaves, 

 and very small ochroleucous flowers on 

 filiform axillary peduncles. As its name 

 implies, it is a native of North-west Ame- 

 rica. [T. M.] 



MECONOPSIS. An herbaceous peren- 

 nial belonging to the Papaveracem, distin- 

 guished from Papaver by having a short 

 style and Ave to six free stigmas. M. cam- 

 brica, the Welsh Poppy, a native of Wales, 

 Devonshire, North Britain, and the North 

 of Ireland, is a pretty plant about a foot 

 high, with bright green pinnate hairy 

 leaves, slender stems, and large terminal 

 remarkably fugacious flowers which droop 

 while in bud, and are of a delicate sulphur- 

 yellow colour. [C. A. J.] 



MEDAILLE DE JUDAS. (Fr.) Zuna- 

 ria biennis. 



MEDEOLA. A genus of Trilliacece, con- 

 taining a North American herb, M. virgi- 

 niea, which has a white rhizome tasting 

 like cucumber, from which the plant de- 

 rives its local name of Indian Cucumber- 

 root. It has an erect simple stem with a 

 whorl of obovate-lanceolate sessile leaves, 

 and a second whorl of smaller ones near 

 the top, subtending a sessile umbel of 

 small greenish-yellow flowers. [J. T. SJ 



MEDER-DETJR. Kigslia abyssinica. 



MEDICAGO. The Medick genus : one of 

 the Papilionaceo?, and distinguished by its 

 more or less spirally twisted legume. The 



more important species are the follow- 

 ins:— 



If. sativa, the Purple Medick, or Lucerne. 

 This, though found apparently wild on the 

 borders of fields, has doubtless escaped 

 from cultivation ; it is distinguished by its 

 purple flowers and upright growth. Its 

 herbage is green and succulent, and has 

 the advantage of being early, on which 

 account it has been highly extolled as an 

 agricultural plant?. It yields two rather 

 abundant crops of green food in the year, 

 of a quality highly relished by horses and 

 cattle. M. lupulina, the Black Medick, or 

 Nonsuch, is at first sight so much like the 

 yellow trefoils as to be generally known 

 by farmers as the Hop trefoil, or Hop ; it 

 is, however, distinguished by its naked 

 black legume. It is used in farming to 

 mix with grasses and clovers for artifi- 

 cial or shifting pastures, in which it often 

 assumes a luxuriance of growth well befit- 

 ting it for this purpose. M. maculata, 

 remarkable for its spirally-coiled prickly 

 legumes, has, from the quantity of herbage 

 which it grows, been recommended for cul- | 

 tivation as a green fodder plant ; but it is 

 scarcely equal to the former, while in hay ! 

 the long prickles to its seed-vessels render | 

 it very objectionable. [J. BJ j 



MEDICTA elegans is a name given by 

 Gardner to a very handsome Hongkong 

 twiner, which has since proved to be a 

 species of Gelsemium. 



MEDICINIER. (Fr.) Jatropha. 



MEDICK. Medicago. 



MEDINILLA. Between two and three 

 dozen species of this genus of Melastoma- 

 cece have been described, all from the is- 

 lands of the Indian Ocean. They are shrub- 

 by plants, generally quite smooth, with 

 opposite or whorled entire fleshy leaves, 

 the primary nerves of which are strongly 

 marked and often coloured, and having 

 panicles of rose or white flowers, the cali- 

 ces and stalks of which are nearly always 

 reddish. The principal characters of the 

 genus reside in the limb of the calyx being 

 entire or at most obsoletely lobed, and in 

 the stamens, of which there are eight or 

 ten (double the number of the floral enve- i 

 lopes), having basal-fixed generally incur- 

 ved anthers with two lobes or spurs at the 

 bottom in front and one behind. M. mag- 

 nifica is a truly magnificent plant. [A.S.] 



MEDIOCRE. Intermediate between large 

 and small. 



MEDLAR. Mespilus germanica. The I 

 Medlar of Surinam is said to be a sapota- { 

 ceous plant. — , JAPAN. Eriobotrya ja- j 

 ponica. 



MEDORA. A genus of Liliacea;, of the \ 

 tribe Asparaginece, founded on the Smila- I 

 cinafusca of Nepal. It has a creeping rhi- ; 

 zome.an erect simple stem, stalked cordate- j 

 ovate acuminate leaves, and terminal di- j 

 chotomous many-flowered peduncles of I 

 long-stalked flowers, nearly racemose on j 

 the ultimate divisions. The perianth is : 



