MIMTj] 



®tje CrcaSttrg af Botanfi. 



746 



ness to throw out roots, and its adaptation 

 to the climate of the British Isles, it soon 

 establishes itself in any moist ground on 

 which it may be thrown, to the exclusion 

 of other plants of less robust habit ; so 

 that it may be said to have become natu- 

 ralised. Many varieties of this species are 

 cultivated, the corollas of which are large 

 and showy, bright yellow blotched with 

 rich brown. M. moschatus is commonly 

 cultivated as a cottage window plant, under 

 the name of Musk-plant. It is a native of 

 North America, about the Columbia River, 

 but does not adapt itself so readily to our 

 climate as the preceding species. French, 

 Mimule ; German, Gaukler. [C. A. J.] 



MIMUSOPS. A genus of SapotacecP; con- 

 taining thirty or more described species, 

 about one third of which are imperfectly 

 known. The better known species are 

 found in the East Indies, tropical Australia, 

 Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope, 

 Brazil, and Guiana ; and are generally large 

 milky-juiced trees, frequently eighty or a 

 hundred feet high, with thick entire 

 smooth leaves, and clusters of small white 

 often sweet-smelling flowers. These latter 

 are characterised by having a six: or eight- 

 parted calyx with the segments in a double 

 series ; and a corolla divided into three 

 times as many parts, also in a double series. 

 Their fruits are globose or somewhat el- 

 lipsoid, and one or two-celled by abortion, 

 containing one or two hard smooth seeds 

 marked with a small egg-shaped scar. 



Several species yield hard, durable, and 

 very heavy timber, such, for instance, as 

 M. Elengi and M. indica in Ceylon, where 

 the wood is used for ordinary house-build- 

 ing purposes, and M. hexandra in the pe- 

 ninsula of India. A species called the 

 Bully-tree or Bullet-tree in British Guiana, 

 grows from a hundred to a hundred and 

 twenty feet high, with a trunk six feet in 

 diameter and destitute of branches for the 

 first sixty or seventy feet, affording a very 

 close-grained timber of an exceedingly 

 durable nature, being but little influenced 

 by the weather. Its small fruits, about the 

 size of coffee-berries, are delicious when 

 ripe. The fruits of other species, also, are 

 commonly eaten in their native countries, 

 such as those of M, Elengi, the seeds of 

 which likewise afford an abundance of oil, 

 while its highly fragrant flowers yield their 

 perfume to water by distillation. [A. S.] 



MINA. A genus of Convolvulacecp,, con- 

 taining a single species from Mexico. It ! 

 is a beautiful twining herbaceous plant, 

 with flowers in scorpioidal racemes, and 

 having five sepals, a salver-shaped corolla 

 with a swollen tube, five exserted stamens, 

 and a four-celled ovary with a single ovule 

 in each cell. The form of the corolla sepa- 

 rates this genus from Quamoclit, but the 

 difference is very slight. [W. C] 



MINDI DES INDES. (Fr.) Lawsonia. 



MINDOUBI. A Brazilian name for the 

 Ground Nut, Arachis hypogaa. i 



MINETTE. (Fr.) Medicago lupulina. 

 DORFIe. Trifolium agrarmm. 



MINIATUS. Scarlet, with a decided | 

 mixture of yellow. 



MINOOMOOLOO. An Indian name for I 

 Phaseolus Mungo. 



MINT. Mentha. — , BERGAMOT. Men- 

 tha citrata. — , BROOK. Mentha sylveMris. 

 — , CAT. Nepeta Cataria. — , FLEA. Men- 

 tha Pulegium. — , GARDEN. Mentha viridis. 

 — , HORSE. Mentha sylvestris; also Mo- 

 narda punctata. — , MOUNTAIN. Pycnan- 

 themum. — , PEPPER. Mentha Piperita. 

 — , SPEAR. Mentha viridis. — , "WATER. 

 Mentha sylvestris. 



MINT TREE. Prostanthera violacea. 



MINTJARTIA. A section of Alsine, dis- 

 tinguished by having the calyx indurated 

 at thebase when in fruit, and marked with 

 dark ribs. Some authors exclude the 

 species with evident petals, and raise the 

 others to the rank of a genus. [J. T. SJ 



MIQUELIA. A genus of Olacacece, of 

 the tribe Phytocrenece, consisting of two or 

 three woody climbers from tropical Asia, 

 remarkable for the open porous structure 

 of their wood. The leaves are alternate, 

 oblong, and entire or scarcely toothed ; the 

 flowers small, dioecious, in little globular 

 heads, the female heads very compact, but 

 the males, owing to the corollas being con- 

 tracted at the base into a long slender 

 stalk, appear to be umbellate. In both sexes 

 the heads are clustered or in short racemes, 

 above the axils of the leaves. The genus 

 is allied to Phytocrene and Sarcostigma, but 

 readily distinguished by the male flowers, 

 as well as by the seeds, which have a fleshy 

 albumen, and a rather large embryo with 

 flat but thickish cotyledons. 



MIRABELLE. (Fr.) A name applied to 

 candied Plums. — DE CORSE. Physalis 

 tomentosa. 



MIRABILIS. Handsome herbaceous 

 plants with tuberous roots, belonging to 

 the Nyctaginacece, and distinguished by a 

 tubular corolla bearing beneath its base 

 a single farinaceous seed invested with 

 the hardened tube of the corolla, and simu- 

 lating a nut. M. dichotoma is called in the 

 Westlndies, Four-o'clock Flower, from the 

 fact of its flowers expanding about that 

 time in the evening. M. Jalapa, which 

 was supposed at one time to furnish the 

 jalap of commerce, is a showy herbaceous 

 perennial, with large smooth leaves, and 

 handsome flowers collected in clusters at 

 the summit of the stem; it is commonly cul- 

 tivated under the name of Marvel of Peru. 

 The flowers, which are red white yellow 

 or variegated, are fragrant ; they expand 

 as in the rest of the genus, in the evening, 

 and wither on the following morning. M. 

 longiflora bears long viscid-tubed white 

 flowers which have the scent of those of the 

 orange tree. French, Belle de nuit; Ger- 

 man, W imderblume. [C. A. J.] 



MIRBELIA. A genus of Leguminosce of 

 the tribe Podalyriece, remarkable among 



