I 
MAR 
M A R 
places where thefe can be eafily obtained, a great im- 
provement may be made of them. 
Sea-fand and fhells are in feveral parts of England 
ufed to great advantage, efpecially in Devonfhire, 
where they are at the expence of fetching the fand 
and fhells on horfes backs, twelve or fourteen miles. 
The land on which they lay this Manure, is a ftrong 
loam inclining to clay ; fo that this feparates the parts, 
and the falts which are contained in the dreffing are 
a very great improvement of their land. Coral, and 
fuch kinds of ftony plants which grow on the rocks, 
are filled with falts which are very beneficial to land ; 
but as thefe bodies are hard, the improvement is not 
the firft or fecond year after they are kid on the 
ground, becaufe they require time to pulverize them 
before their falts can mix with the earth to impreg- 
nate it. Therefore dreffings of this kind are feldom 
ufed by tenants, who want to reap the fruit of their 
labour as foon as poffible. But thefe Manures are 
much better for cold ftrong land, than for that which 
is light and fandy. In fome countries, at a great 
diftance from the fea, have been difcovered great 
quantities of foffil fhells, which have been dug out 
of the earth, and ufed as Manure, which have im- 
proved the ground a little, efpecially ftrong land : as 
thefe have little falts, when compared to thofe fhells 
which are taken from the fhore, therefore where the 
latter can be obtained, they other are fcarce worth 
ufing. 
Where the land lies near the fea, fo that either fand, 
fhells, corals, wrecks, or fea-weeds, can be obtained 
at an eafy expence, they are by far the belt kinds of 
Manure, becaufe they enrich the land for feveral 
years *, for as their falts are clofely locked up, they 
are communicated by degrees to the land, as the heat 
and cold caufes the bodies to pulverize, and fall into 
fmall parts *, fo that where fand and fmaller kinds of 
fea-weeds are ufed, if they are laid on land in proper 
quantities it will enrich it for fix or feven years ; but 
fhells, corals, and other hard bodies, will continue 
many years longer. 
In dunging of land, I have frequently obferved in 
feveral parts of England, but efpecially in Cambridge- 
fhire, a very wrong cuftom continued, by carrying 
and laying the dung on the land about Midfummer, 
and fpread abroad perhaps a month or fix weeks be- 
fore the ground is ploughed ; in which time the fun 
exhales all the goodnefs of the dung, fo that what re- 
mains is of little feryice to the land. Therefore when 
dung or any other Manure is ufed, it fhould not be 
laid on the ground until the laft time of ploughing, 
when it fhould be buried as foon as poffible, to pre- 
vent the evaporation of the falts. Indeed, where 
fhells, corals, or any other hard fubftances, are ufed 
for Manure, if thefe are fpread abroad fome months 
before the ground is ploughed, the fun, rain, or froft 
will caufe them to pulverize much fooner than when 
they are buried and excluded from the air. 
The dreffing of Grafs ground in fummer, foon after 
the crop of hay is taken off the land, is equally bad ; 
for before Michaelmas the fun will have dried and 
exhaled moft of the goodnefs, if the dreffing is of 
dung or any other foft Manure, fo that the ground 
will receive fmall advantage from it j and yet this 
method is too generally pradifed. 
MAPLE. See Acer. 
MAR ACOCK. See Passiflora. 
M ARANTA. Plum. Nov. Gen. 1 6. tab. 36. Lin. 
Gen. Plant. 5. Indian Arrow-root. 
The Characters are. 
It hath a fmall three-leaved empalement fitting upon the 
germen ; the flower hath one petal, which is of the grin- 
ning kind, having an oblong comprefled tube , which is ob- 
lique and turned inward *, the rim is cut into fix fmall feg- 
ments , reprefenting a lip flower, the two fide fegments 
being the largeft. It has one membranaceous ftamina , ap- 
pearing like a flegment of the petal, with a linear fummit 
faftened to the border. It hath a roundifh germen fitu- 
ated under the flower, fiipporting a fmple ftyle the 
length of the petal, crowned by a three-cornered fligma. 
I he germen afterward turns to a roundifh three-cor- 
nered capfule with three valves , containing one hard 
rough feed. 
This genus of plants is ranged in the firft fedtion of 
Linnaeus’s firft clafs, intitled Monandria Monogynia, 
which includes thofe plants whole flowers have but 
one ftamina and one ftyle. 
The Species are, 
1. Maranta (. Arundinacea ) culmo rarnofo. Lin. Sp. 2. 
Indian Arrow-root with branching folks. Maranta 
Arundinacea cannacori folio. Plum. Nov. Gen. 16. 
Maranta with a leaf of the Indian flowering Reed. 
2. Maranta ( Galanga ) culmo fimplici. Lin. Sp. 3. 
Indian Arrow-root with a fmple folk. Canna Indica, 
radice alba alexipharmica. Sloan. Cat. Jam. 122. In- 
dian Arrow-root . 
The firft fort was difcovered by Father Plunder in 
fome of the French fettlements in America, who gave 
it this name, in honour of one Bartholomew Maranta, 
an ancient botanift. The feeds of this kind were 
fent to Europe by the late Dr. William Houftoun, 
who found the plant growing in plenty near La Vera 
Cruz in New Spain. 
This hath a thick, flefhy, creeping root which is very 
fuM of knots, from which arife many fmooth leaves, 
which are fix or feven inches long, and three broad 
toward their bafe, leffening toward each end, termi- 
nating in points. They are of the confiftence and co- 
lour of thofe of the Reed, and ftand upon Reed- 
like foot-ftalks, which arife immediately from the 
root j between thefe come out the ftalks, which rife 
near two feet high -, thefe divide upward into two or 
three fmaller, and are garnifhed at each joint with 
one leaf of the fame fhape with the lower, but are 
fmaller. The ends of the ftalks are terminated by a 
loofe bunch of fmall white flowers, ftanding upon 
foot-ftalks which are near two inches long. The 
flowers are cut into fix narrow fegments, which are 
indented on their edges ; thefe fit upon the embryo, 
which afterward turns to a roundifh three-cornered 
capfule, inclofing one hard rough feed. It flowers 
here in June and July. 
The other fort was brought from fome of the Spanifh 
a A. 
fettlements in America, into the lflands or Bafcbadoes 
and Jamaica, where it is cultivated in their gardens 
as a medicinal plant, it being a fovereign remedy to 
cure the bite of wafps, and to extract die poifon of 
the Manchineel-tree. The Indians apply the root to 
expel the poilon of their arrows, which they ufe with 
great fuccefs. They take up the roots, and after 
cleanfing them from dirt, they mafh them, and apply 
it as a poultice to the wounded part, which draws out 
the poifon and heals the wound. It will abb flop a 
gangrene, if it is applied before it is gone too far, v fo 
that it is a very valuable plant. 
This fort is very like the firft, but has a Angle ftalk ; 
the flowers are fmaller, and the fegments of the petals 
are entire, in which their principal difference confifts j 
it flowers alfo at the fame time. 
Thefe plants being natives of a warm country, are 
very tender, and therefore will not live in this climate, 
unlefs they are preferved inftoves. They may be pro- 
pagated by their creeping roots, which fhould be part- 
ed in the middle of March, juft before they begin to 
pufh out new leaves. Thefe roots lhould be planted 
in pots filled with light rich earth, and plunged into a 
moderate hot-bed of tanners bark, obferving now and 
then to refrefh them with water • but it mirft not be 
given to them in large quantities, for too much rnoi- 
fture will foon rot the roots, when they are in an un- 
adtive ftate. When the green leaves appear above 
ground, the plants will require more frequently to be 
watered, and they fhould have free airadmitted to them 
every day, in proportion to the .warmth of the fe-afon, 
and the heat of the bed in which they are placed. Ac 
,*u 
they mould, hav 
the plants advance in ftrengti 
greater (hare of air, but they muff cord- 
in the ftove plunged in the tan, other wife they vHi no 
an? i .■ rei ran 
-A 
thrive *, for when the pots are pS 
ftove, the moifture pafles too foon bom the ,f» 
hich 
