r 41 



€3)£ Crcas'ury at Matziw. 



[mice 



cece, -which consists of lofty trees, natives 

 of India and the islands of the Eastern 

 Archipelago, and is nearly allied to Mag- 

 nolia, but distinguished by the axillary 

 flowers, the looser arrangement of the car- 

 pels, and the more numerous ovules. 



Jf. Champaca, the Chumpaka of the Hin- 

 doos, is cultivated commonly in India 

 for the powerful fragrance of its flowers, 

 which, indeed, according to Sir W. Jones, 

 is so strong that bees seldom if ever alight 

 on them. The tree is sacred to Vishnu, and 

 is therefore an object of superstitious re- 

 gard on the part of the Hindoos, who 

 adorn their dark hair with the rich orange- 

 coloured flowers. The root, like all parts 

 of the tree, has bitter properties, and 

 is used medicinally. There appears to be 

 some difficulty in defining the species; or 

 j probably that just mentioned, having been 

 ! long cultivated, has originated numerous 

 varieties which are mistaken for species : 

 j thus, M. Bheedii is referred to M. Champaca 

 j by Hooker and Thomson. The timber of M. 

 j Bheedii is employed in Bombay for cabinet- 

 work, and has been tried in ship-building, 

 while various parts of the tree are used me- 

 dicinally as stimulants, &c. M. Doltsopa, 

 another variety of the Champaca, is men- 

 tioned as furnishing a fragrant wood used 

 I in house-building in Nepal. Lindley men- 

 tions the bark of M. montana as having 

 properties like those of cascarilla, but 

 milder, and that of M. gracilis as having the 

 odour of camphor. M. Champaca is culti- 

 vated as a hothouse plant in this country, 

 where, however, it does not appear to be 

 as great a favourite as its Indian reputa- 

 tion would lead us to infer. [M. T. M.] 



MICO, MIJO. A solid oil, made in Japan 

 from Soja Mspida. 



MICOCOTJLIER. (Fr.) Celtis. 



MICONIA. A very considerable genus 

 of exclusively tropical American melasto- 

 mads, mostly shrubs or even small trees, 

 very variable in their foliage, and with ter- 

 minal panicles (sometimes spikes) of small 

 generally white flowers. The floral en- 

 velopes are mostly in fives (rarely four, 

 six, or eight) ; the calyx more or less cam- 

 panulate, with a short limb having the 

 teeth obsolete in some and evident in 

 others, and the little external teeth either 

 altogether absent orpunctiform; the petals 

 obovate, rounded or retuse ; and the sta- 

 mens nearly always double as many as the 

 j petals, and mostly curved, their anthers 

 variablein shape, opening by pores or slits, 

 the connective either without any down- 

 ward prolongation, or shortly and variously 

 prolonged. The ovary is two to five-celled, 

 the style slender ; and the stigma puncfci- 

 form, capitellate or peltate, fruit a glo- 

 bose berry. [A. S.] 



MICRAXDRA. This generic name was 

 originally applied to a large Brazilian tree 

 which has since been found to belong to 

 Siphonia. It has now been given to two 

 other closely allied trees belonging to the 

 same order, Euphorbiacece, but easily dis- 

 tinguished by their leaves being simple, 



instead of consisting of three leaflets as in 

 Siphonia. The flowers are of separate sexes, 

 borne in panicles from the axils of the 

 leaves, the males being much more nume- 

 rous than the females, and distinguished 

 from those of allied genera by having five 

 free stamens, the females having a conical 

 ovary terminated by a very short style 

 bearing three notched stigmas. Both the 

 species, M. siphonioides and M. minor, in- 

 habit the banks of the Rio Negro and its 

 tributaries, forming large trees, often hav- 

 ing as many as ten trunks rising in a clus- 

 ter from one root, and growing from fifty 

 to sixty feet high. They abound in milky 

 juice, which, when inspissated, yields pure 

 caoutchouc ; and the natives who collect 

 the caoutchouc sent to this country from 

 Para, commonly known as ' bottle-rubber,' 

 obtain it indiscriminately from these trees 

 and the various species of Siphonia, and 

 apply to them the same name(Xeringue or 

 Seringue) as that by which the latter trees 

 are known. [A. S.] 



MICROCODOX. A genus of bellworts, 

 distinguished by having the border of the 

 calyx in five pieces ; the corolla nearly cy- 

 lindrical, five-lobed, and persistent; the 

 style slender, short, five-lobed at the sum- 

 mit ; and the seed-vessel spherical and very 

 hairy. The species are Cape annuals of 

 lowly habit, with small stalkless narrow 

 leaves, and terminal short-stalked flowers. 

 The name alludes to the small size of the 

 bell-formed flowers. [G. D.] 



MICRO DOX. A small genus of Sela- 

 gihacecB, containing five species of under- 

 shrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 They have alternate entire leaves, and ter- 

 minal flower-spikes with broad bracts. 

 The calyx is tubular, shortly five-toothed, 

 adnate for nearly half its length to the 

 bracts ; the corolla has a funnel-shaped tube 

 and a five-lobed limb; there are four didy- 

 namous stamens, of which the longer pair 

 are exserted, the filaments slender, and the 

 anthers one-celled. The ovary is two-celled, 

 each with one ovule depending from the 

 apex. The fruit consists of two achenes 

 which separate spontaneously. ["W. C] 



MICROGOXITJM. Trichovianes. 



MICROL^XA. A genus of grasses be- 

 longing to the tribe Oryzece. The spikes 

 of inflorescence are three- flowered, the 

 two lower flowers neuter and one-valved, 

 the terminal one two-valved and herma- 

 phrodite. There is only one species, M. 

 stipoides, a native of New Holland. [D. M.] 



MICROLEPIA. One of the principal of 

 the groups into which the old genus Da- 

 vallia is separated by modern pteridolo- 

 gists. It differs in this : that, whereas 

 Davallia has the indusium of the sorus tu- 

 buloseor cup-shaped and marginal, Micro- 

 lepia has the sorus intra-marginal, and the 

 indusium semiorbicular or short and half 

 cup-shaped. The species are mostly large- 

 growing herbaceous plants, with variously 

 divided fronds, and are widely scattered 

 over the tropical or subtropical parts of 



