Kty Creagury of Matting. 



756 



MORGINATE. (Fr.) Elatine. 



MORIA. The parts of a flower in gene- 

 ral; as pentamorius, which signifies all 

 the parts being arranged in fives. 



MORICANDIA. A genus of Cruciferce, 

 j containing about half a dozen species, na- 

 I tives of Southern Europe, Northern Africa, 

 1 and Western Asia. These are glaucous 

 smooth herbs, sometimes shrubby at the 

 base, with entire stem-clasping or pin- 

 nately cut leaves, and large purple or rose 

 flowers, succeeded by long narrow siliqui- 

 form pods with flat or keeled valves, and 

 either beakless or with a compressed some- 

 times one-seeded beak, ending in a short 

 style, the stigmas united into an erect 

 cone. [A. S.] 



MORILLE COMESTIBLE. (Fr.) Mor- 

 chella esculenta. 



MORINA. A genus of Bipsacece, distin- 

 guished by the tubular irregular corolla 

 and four stamens either didynamous or 

 united in two pairs. It consists of four or 

 five species natives of the Levant and 

 Central Asia. They are erect thistle-like 

 herbs with oblong prickly-toothed leaves, 

 and pink flowers in dense whorls in the 

 axils of the upper short floral leaves. M. 

 longifolia, from the Himalaya, has been in- 

 troduced into European gardens. 



MORINDA. A genus of Chichonacece, con- 

 taining between thirty and forty SDecies 

 almost confined to the tropics of Asia and 

 Africa. A few of them are climbing plants, 

 but the greater portion are small trees or 

 shrubs, usually having opposite but occa- 

 sionally whorled leaves, with thin entire 

 stipules united at the base within the leaf- 

 stalks ; and flowers in dense heads on stalks 

 produced either singly or several together 

 in the axils of the leaves or at the ends of 

 the branches. The fruit is fleshy, and con- 

 sists of the berries of the several flowers 

 in ahead united into one compound berry. 

 The roots and bark of several species of 

 Morinda are useful in their native coun- 

 tries on account of their dyeing properties, 

 but their colours are not very permanent. 



j Amongst those most commonly used, the 

 following are all small trees common in 



I India and very closely allied to each other : 

 M. citrifolia, used in Madras for dyeing red 

 turbans ; M. tinctoria, the Ach root ; and 

 M. bracieata, the bark of which contains 

 two colours, a red and a yellow changing 

 to crimson upon the application of alkalies, 

 but though commonly used in India, the 

 colours obtained from it are very dull. M. 

 umbellata, also used for dyeing, has climb- 

 ing stems which the Cingalese employ 

 instead of ropes for tying fences. The 

 fruits of several species are eatable, but 

 insipid. [A. S.] 



MORINGACEiE. (Moringads.) A natural 

 order of calycifloral dicotyledons, belong- 

 ing to Lindley's violal alliance of hypogy- 

 nous Exogens. Trees with bipinnate or tri- 

 pinnate stipuled leaves, allied to legumi- 

 nous plants ; calyx five-parted ; petals five 



rather unequal, the upper one ascending; 

 stamens eight or ten, perigynous, the fila- 

 ments slightly petaloid, callous, and hairy 

 at the base, the anthers simple, one-celled ; 

 disk lining the tube of the calyx ; ovary su- 

 perior, stipitate, one-celled, the ovules at- 

 tached to parietal placentas ; style filiform ; 

 stigma simple. Fruit a pod-like three- 

 valved capsule ; seeds numerous, half bu- 

 ried in the spongy substance of the valves, 

 sometimes winged. Natives of the East 

 Indies and Arabia, with pungent and aro- 

 matic properties. [J. H. B.J 



MORINGA. The only genus of Moringa- 

 cece, and having, therefore, the characters 

 of the order. It is a peculiar genus, having 

 the general appearance of Leguminosce, 

 from which it differs in the odd petal being 

 inferior, the anthers one-celled, the ovary 

 tricarpellary, and the ovules anatropal. 

 There are three species, natives of North 

 Africa, the warm parts of Westen>Asia, 

 and the East Indies. The seeds of M.ptery- 

 gosperma, the Horse-radish tree, are wing- 

 ed, and are called Ben-nuts ; from them is 

 procured a fluid oil used by watchmakers, 

 and called oil of Ben ; the root is pungent 

 and stimulant, and resembles horse-radish 

 in its taste. [J. H. B.J 



MORISONIA. The name of a "West In- 

 dian tree belonging to the Capparidaccce, 

 and so called in memory of Robert Morison, 

 Professor of Botany at Oxford in 1683. 

 The flowers are white, axillary, somewhat 

 tufted, with a distended calyx, corolla of 

 four blunt petals, numerous stamens com- 

 bined in to a tube below, and a long-stalked 

 ovary. Fruit succulent. [M. T. M.J 



MORITA. A Spanish name for Madura 

 tinctoria. 



MORITZIA. A genus of Boraginaceai 

 allied to Anchusa, but differing in its ex- 

 serted stamens, and in the scales which 

 close the throat of the corolla being fringed. 

 It is a Brazilian herb, with the habit of a 

 Myosotis, the radical leaves very large, 

 those of the stem much smaller ciliated; 

 flowers in scorpioid racemes, small, with a 

 funnel-shaped corolla ; nuts shining, often 

 by abortion reduced to one. [J. T. S.J 



MORMODES. The species of Mormodes 

 when not in flower are undistinguishable 

 from Catasetum, having the same fusiform 

 stems clothed to the base with the rem- 

 nants of fallen leaves, and the same plicate 

 sheathing-based leaves. The chief techni- 

 cal points by which it is distinguished are 

 the want of cirrhi upon the column ; the 

 lip being membranous, turned upwards, 

 and often shaped something like a saddle; 

 and the pollen-masses being four in num- 

 ber, connate in pairs, fixed to a thick cau- 

 dicle which adheres to a fleshy gland. 

 About a dozen or fifteen species are known, 

 all of them natives of America from Mexico 

 to Caraccas. Most of them have at one 

 time or other been cultivated in the orchid 

 houses of this country, where they are 

 grown more for their singularity than for 

 their beauty. [A. S.J 



