36 
MIKANIA GuUACO.—A composite plant, which has gained some 
notoriety lately as the supposed Cundurango, the cancer-curing bark. 
It has long been supposed to supply a powerful antidote for the bite of 
venomous serpents. 
- MIMUSOPS BALATA.—The Bully tree. This sapotaceous plant attains. 
a great size in Guiana, and affords a dense, close-grained, valuable tim- 
ber. Its small fruits, about the size of coffee- “berries, are delicious 
when ripe. The flowers also yield a perfume when distilled in water, 
and oil is expressed from the seeds. 
Mimusors ELENGI.—A native of Ceylon, where its hard, heavy, 
durable timber is used for building purposes. The seed also affords a 
great amount of oil. 
MoNODORA GRANDIFLORA.—An African plant, belonging to the 
Anonacee. It produces large fruit, which contains a large quantity of 
seeds, about the size of the Scarlet-Runner bean. They : are aromatic, 
and impart to the fruit the odor and flavor of nutmeg; hence they are 
also known as Calabash nutmegs. 
MONSTERA DELICIOSA.—This is a native of Southern Mexico, and 
yields a delicious fruit, with the luscious pine-apple flavor. The holes in 
the leaves are from natural causes, not yet sufficiently explained. 
MORINGA PTERYGOSPERMA.—A native of the East Indies, where it 
bears the name of Horse-Radish tree. The seeds are called Ben-nuts, 
and supply a fluid oil, highly prized by watchmakers, called oil of ben. 
The root is pungent and stunulant, and tastes like horse-radish. 
MOoORONOBEA COCCINEA.—The Hog Gum tree; attains a height of one 
- hundred feet. A fluid pellucid juice exudes from incisions in the trunk, 
and hardens into a yellow resin. It is said the hogs in Jamaica, when 
wounded, rub the injured part against the tree, so as to cover it with 
the gum, which possesses vulnerary properties; hence its name. The 
resin has been employed as a substitute for Copaiba Balsam, and plas- 
ters are made of it. 
MURRAYA EXOTICA.—A Chinese plant of the Orange family. The 
fruit is succulent, and the white flowers are very fragrant. They are 
used in perfumery. . 
MuRUCUJA OCELLATA.—This plant belongs to the Passion Flower 
family, has attractive flowers, and is said to possess anthelmintic and. 
diaphoretic qualities, and to be used in Jamaica as a narcotic. 
MusA SAPIENTUM.—The Banana plant. This has been cultivated and 
used as food in tropical countries from very remote times, and furnishes 
enormous quantities of nutritious food, and serves as a staple support 
to a large number of the human race. ‘The expressed juice is in some 
countries made into a fermented liquor, and the young shoots eaten as a 
vegetable. , 
MuSsA TEXx?TILIs.—This furnishes the fiber known as Manila hemp, and 
is cultivated in the Philippine Islands for this product. The finer kinds 
of the fiber are woven into beautiful shawls, and the coarser manufac- 
tured into cordage for ships. The fiber is obtained from the leaf-stalks. 
Musa ENSETE.—-This Abyssinian species forms large foliage of strik- 
ing beauty. The food is dry and uneatable; but the base of the flower- 
stalk is eaten by the natives. 
Musa CAVENDISHHO.—Is a valuable dwarf species of the Banana from 
Southern China. It bears a large truss of fine fruit, and is cultivated to 
some extent in Florida, where it endures more cold than the West India 
species, and fruits more abundantly. 
MUSSAINDA FRONDOSA.—This chinchonaceous plant is a native of 
Ceylon. The bark and leaves are esteemed as tonics and febrifuges in 
