729 



Ci)£ Crragurg ai Matunv. 



[mela 



of the involucre, and are usually crowned 

 bv a small cup-shaped pappus, often bearing 

 oiie to three bristles. There are nearly 

 twenty species, natives of tropical Ame- 

 rica, one of them found also in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, but probably introduced with 

 other American weeds. 



MEL AMPTErM. The Cow-wheat, a ge- 

 nus of annuals belonging to the Scrophula- 

 riacece, having erect slender stems, narrow 

 opposite leaves, and axillary or spiked 

 flowers which are two-lipped, the upper 

 lip being compressed and turned back at 

 the margin, the lower three-cleft. The 

 meaning of the systematic name, ' black 

 wheat,' bears reference to an ancient 

 belief that the seeds, when mixed with 

 grains of wheat and ground into flour, 

 tended to make the bread black. There 

 are four British species : 2f. pratense, the 

 most frequent, which inhabits dry woods ; 

 21. sylvaticum, a much less common species, 

 found in the north ; 2f. cristatum, which 

 grows principally in the eastern counties ; 

 and 2L arvense, not unfrequent in the Isle 

 of Wight, where it is a conspicuous object 

 iu the corn fields, with its large oblong 

 spikes of flowers variegated with yellow, 

 green, and crimson. French, Melampi/re ; 

 German, Wachtelweizen. [C. A. J.] 



MELANCHOLY GENTLEMAN. Hespe- 

 ris tristis. 



MELANDRir/M. By a few authors the 

 genus Lychnis is divided into several, and 

 one of these is named 2Ielandriian, and em- 

 braces all those species which have inflated 

 calices, and capsules opening by ten in- 

 stead of five teeth. There are about a 

 dozen species having these characters, all 

 of them Alpine or northern, and three na- 

 tives of Britain : these are, L. ve-spertina, 

 diurna, and alpina. [A. A. B.] 



MELANISM. A disease producing black- 

 ness. 



MELANOGASTER. A genus of under- 

 ground Fungi, belonging to the natural 

 order Rypogcei, distinguished by a tough 

 skin more or less overrun externally with 

 branched fibres, and within containing si- 

 nuous moist cavities, whose walls support 

 smooth naked spores. Most of the species 

 have a disagreeable smell, but 2f.variega.tus, 

 which is less offensive, is used in the west 

 of England as a substitute for tritffles, un- 

 der the name of Red Truffle. It has, how- 

 ever, none of the delicate aroma of the real 

 truffle, and probably has little merit be- 

 yond giving a dark colour to the sauce of 

 which it forms a part. We are not aware 

 that the srenus has been found out of 

 Europe. • [M. J. B.] 



MELANORRHOSA. Two very large 

 East Indian trees constitute this genus of 

 Anacardiacece, which derivesits name from 

 the Greek words melanos, black, and rheo, 

 to flow, in consequence of the juice which 

 flows from their trunks turning black upon 

 exposure to the air. They grow upwards 

 of a hundred feet high, and have broad 

 spreading heads bearing large simple 



entire leaves of a thick texture, and axil- 

 lary panicles of perfect flowers. These 

 have five sepals cohering so as to form a 

 kind of cap, five overlapping petals, and 

 numerous stamens. The fruit is surrounded 

 by the enlarged petals spread out in a star- 

 like manner. 



M.usitatissima is common in forests from 

 Tenasserim and Pegu to Manipur in Sylhet. 

 It is called Theet-see in the former, and 

 I Kheu in the latter country ; and its dark- 

 coloured wood, on account of its excessive 

 hardness and great weight, is known as the 

 Lignum Vitae of Pegu— so heavy, indeed, is 

 it, that anchors for native boats are made of 

 it. The most valuable and extensively used 

 product of the tree, however, is the black 

 ] varnish which it yields. This is obtained 

 I by the process of tapping, short joints of 

 bamboo, closed at the bottom end, being 

 : thrust into holes made in the trunk and 

 I left for about two days, when they become 

 I full of a whitish thick juice which turns 

 black when exposed to the air, and requires 

 i to be kept under water in order to preserve 

 I it. All kinds of domestic utensils and fur- 

 niture are lacquered with this juice, which 

 ; is laid on thin and slowly dried, the change 

 from white to black being, according to Sir 

 ' D. Brewster, attributable to its losing its 

 ! organised structure and becoming honio- 

 1 genous, and then transmitting the sun's 

 I rays, which, in its previously organised 

 I state, it dispersed. Like other varnishes 

 \ derived from the same natural order, it is 

 : apt to cause erysipelatous swellings if ap- 

 ; plied to the skin. [A. S.] 



j MELANOSELINTJM. A genus of umbel- 



! lifers, distinguished by each half of the 



' fruit having five narrow primary ribs and 



three secondary, the two outermost of the 



latter in the form of broad wings with a 



saw-like edge. The only species is M. deci- 



piens, a shrub with a round simple stem, 



. bare below, the leaves in three principal 



divisions, the flowers white. [G. D.] 



| MELANOSINAPIS. One of the sections 

 : of Sinapis sometimes separated, and cha- 

 racterised by its small Short not beaked 

 style, and terete or sub-tetragonous pods. 

 It embraces the black mustard, Sinapis 

 j nigra, and a few allied species. [A. SJ 



MELANOSPERMEJE. One of the three 

 i great divisions of Algce, characterised by 

 j their dark olivaceous spores. The plants 

 I themselves are of a light or dark olive, 

 and the fruit is either external in diffuse 

 or definite patches, or contained in distinct 

 cysts sunk in the frond. The endochrome 

 of the spore-cases is, for the most part, ul- 

 timately divided into several spores multi- 

 ples of two. Impregnation is effected by 

 means of minute spermatozoids moving by 

 means of cilia, and produced in distinct 

 antheridia. Occasionally there are two 

 kinds of spores, both reproductive. The 

 frond is either compact and cellular, or 

 formed of jointed filaments. This division 

 contains many of the largest and most im- 

 portant Algce, especially the large brown 

 seaweeds which seem in all countries to 



