Cljr (feas'ttvi? of 23fltan». 



732 



stipules, and their small whitish flowers 

 are produced in divided racemes at the 

 ends of the branches. M. bijaga, the Genip 

 tree, though originally a native of Guiana 

 and New Grenada, is now plentifully found 

 in several of the West India Islands, espe- 

 cially in Jamaica, where it has become 

 naturalised and grows commonly in the 

 lowlands, attaining the height of forty or 

 fifty feet, with a trunk four or five feec in 

 circumference, yielding a hard and heavy 

 timber. It produces numerous green egg- 

 shaped fruits an inch or more in length, 

 possessing an agreeable vinous and some- 

 what aromatic flavour: the generic name 

 being derived from the Greek words vieli, 

 honey, and coccns, a berry, in allusion to 

 the qualities of the fruit. [A. S.J 



MELICOPE. A genus of New Zealand 

 shrubs, belonging to the family Ridacece, 

 The leaves are ternate : the flowers green- 

 ish-white: calyx four-parted, persistent; 

 petals four, spreading ; stamens eight, with 

 awl-shaped filaments ; ovary four-lobed, in- 

 serted on a glandular disk, eaefi lobe with 

 two ovules. Fruit divided into four car- 

 pels, each containing a single seed sus- 

 pended by a thread. [M. T. M.] 



MEL1CYTTJS. A New Zealand genus of 

 Violacece, belonging to the equal-petaled 

 division of the order. The four species all 

 form large woody shrubs or small trees, 

 with long smooth serrated short-stalked 

 leaves, and little bundles of small flowers 

 on the branches, each flower-stalk having 

 one or more bracts. Theflowersareusually 

 of separate sexes, and borne on distinct 

 plants. M. ramiflorus is the Mahoe of the 

 New Zealanders, which must not be con- 

 founded with the Mahoe of the West 

 Indies. It is a tree growing sometimes as 

 high as forty or fifty feet, with a trunk 

 about four feet in circumference covered 

 with white bark, producing a heavy wood 

 of inferior quality. The berries are eaten 

 by the natives. [A. S.] 



MELIER A TROIS NERVURES. (Fr.) 

 Blakea trinervia. 



MELIGA. An Italian name for Millet or 

 Dhurra. 

 MELILOT. Melilotus officinalis. 



MELILOT DE SIBERIE. (Fr.) Meli- 

 lotus alba. 



MELILOTUS. A genus of leguminous 

 plants containing about thirty species, the 

 majority belonging to Southern and Cen- 

 tral Europe and Western Asia. They are 

 herbaceous plants with trifoliate leaves, 

 having the stipules adhering to their foot- 

 stalks, and each of the three leaflets on a 

 separate stalk ; and their small yellow or 

 white flowers are disposed in long-stalked 

 loose racemes growing from the bases of 

 the leaves. The flowers are characterised 

 by the calyx being five-toothed, by the 

 corolla having a blunt keel, and falling 

 away after fading, and by the upper one 

 of the ten stamens being free. The pods, 



which are straight, thick, and short, con- 

 tain one or few seeds. 



M. officinalis, the Common or Yellow Me- 

 1 i lot, is widely spread through Europe and 

 Russian Asia. It is an annual or biennial 

 of erect habit, from two to four feet high, 

 having spreading branches and distant 

 long-stalked leaves Avith bristle-like sti- 

 pules. The long loose racemes of yellow 

 flowers produce small oval pods, marked 

 with irregularly netted veins. When dried 

 the Melilot acquires a peculiar odour, due 

 to the presence of coumarine, a principle 

 which exists likewise in the Tonka bean 

 and the vernal grass, the latter when mix- 

 ed with hay contributing largely to its 

 fragrance. Its flowers are sold by the her- 

 balists as Balsam flowers. In Switzerland, 

 i M. ccerulens is called Zieger Kraut, i.e. curd 

 | herb, and is employed for giving the odour 

 f and flavour to the peculiar cheese called 

 «•' Rchabzieeer orOhapziger,the dried flowers 

 being reduced .to powder and worked up 

 into a paste with the curd. [A. S.] 



M.officinalis is an annual under ordinary 

 circumstances, but ' if cut continually and 

 not allowed to flower, it will last several 

 years.' M. alba has been grown under the 

 names of Cabul and Bokhara or Buchara 

 Clover. As a forage plant ' it has been found 

 too watery when young, and too sticky 

 when old.' But besides this, we have found 

 that the aromatic flavouring principle is 

 too powerful to make it advisable to use 

 this plant by itself. There is, however, one 

 use to which it may be well applied— that of 

 putting an occasional layer of it sandwich- 

 wise with less highly-flavoured fodder, or 

 with hay that has lost some of its savour by 

 wet ; here its aroma, which is so much like 

 that of the sweet vernal grass, to which 

 the flavour of meadow hay is mainly due, 

 might be productive of benefit in render- 

 ing what would otherwise be insipid, more 

 spicy and palatable. This White Melilot is 

 also an excellent bee plant. [J. BJ 



MELINET. (Fr.) Cerinthe aspera. 



MELTOLA. A genus of Fungi allied to 

 Sphan-ia, and analogous to JSrysiphe, which 

 it replaces in tropical or subtropical coun- 

 tries. The species form black felt-like 

 patches on leaves, and bear conspicuous 

 perithecia filled with asci containing a few 

 large articulated dark sporidia. [M.J.B.] 



MELIOSMA. A genus considered as 

 the type of a small order or suborder allied 

 to Terebinthaceai. It consists of tropical 

 trees or shrubs, usually hairy, with alter- 

 nate simple or pinnate leaves without sti- 

 pules, and very small flowers in large ter- 

 minal racemes or panicles. In the structure 

 of the flowers the genus is remarkable for 

 its stamens being opposite the petals. The 

 ovary is three-celled, with two ovules in 

 each; and the fruit is a small one-seeded 

 drupe. The seeds have a curved or twisted 

 radicle, and folded cotyledons. There are 

 about twenty species, natives of America 

 or tropical Asia, chiefly in mountain dis- 

 tricts, supplying timber used for various 

 purposes. The genus was described by 



