MEL 
are i<i the form of fine needles, or in small 
short prisms with shining faces ; they have 
a slightly acid taste, accompanied with 
some degree of bitterness. This acid is not 
very soluble in water; its constituent parts 
are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The 
acid enters into combination with the 
earths, alkalies, and metallic oxides, and 
forms compounds denominated mellates. 
MELOCHIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Monadelphia Pentandria class and order. 
Natural order of Columnifer®. Malvace®, 
Jussieu. Essential character : five-styled ; 
capsule five-celled, one-seeded. There are 
eleven species, of which M. pyrainidata, 
pyramidal melochia, is an elegant little plant 
about three feet in height, so slender and 
weak as generally to require some support ; 
the umbels of flowers are usually placed 
pretty near, and each has five or six rays 
on a common peduncle ; it is a native of 
Brazil and Jamaica. 
MELODINUS, in botany, a genus of 
the Pentandria Digynia class and order. 
Natural order of Contort®. Apocine®, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character : contorted ; nec- 
tary in the middle of the tube, stellate ; 
berry two celled, many-seeded. There is 
but one species, viz. M. scandens, a native 
ofNew Caledonia. 
MELODY, in music, the agreeable ef- 
fect of different sounds, ranged and dis- 
posed in succession ; so that melody is the 
effect of a single voice or instrument, by 
which it is distinguished from harmony. See 
Music. 
MELOE, in natural history, a genus of 
insects of the order Coleoptera. Antenn® 
moniliform ; thorax roundish ; head in- 
flected, gibbous ; shells soft, flexile. Thirty- 
five species have been enumerated and 
described ; these are separated into two di- 
visions. A. without wings ; shells abbre- 
viated. B. winged ; shells as long as the 
abdomen. The latter division is again di- 
vided into those that have horny jaws, bifid; 
and those with a linear jaw, entire. Of the 
species we may notice M. proscarabmus, or 
oil-beetle, which is entirely blue-black or 
dark violet ; it is found in the advanced 
state of spring in fields and pastures, creep- 
ing slowly, the body appearing so distended 
with eggs, as to cause the insect to move 
with difficulty. On being roughly touched 
it suddenly exudes a yellowish moisture 
from the pofes, of a yellow colour, and of 
a very penetrating and peculiar smell. The 
female of this species deposits her eggs in a 
heap beneath the surface of the ground ; 
from these are hatched the larv®, wliicli find 
MEM 
subsistence by attaching tliemselres to oth^ 
insects, and absorbing their juices. M. Ve- 
sicatorious, blister-fly, or Spanish fly, is, as 
its name imports, found chiefly in Spain. 
This is an insect of very great beauty, 
being entirely of the richest gilded grass- 
green, with black antenn®. This is the fa- 
mous cantharis of the shops, the safest and 
most efficacious blister-plaster. 
MELON, in botany, is accounted only a 
species of cucumber. See CucuMis. 
MELOTHRIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Triandria Monogynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Cucurbitace®. Essential 
character : calyx five-cleft ; corolla bell- 
shaped, one-petalled ; berry three-celled, 
many-seeded. There is but one species, 
viz. M. pendula, a plant growing wild in the 
woods in Carolina and Virginia ; it creeps 
upon the ground with slender vines, having 
angular leaves, resembling those of the 
melon ; the fruit, in the West Indies, grows 
to the size of a pea of an oval figure, chang- 
ing black when ripe ; the inhabitants'’pickle 
them green. 
MELYRIS, in natural history, a genus 
of insects of the order Coleoptera. Antenn® 
entirely perfoliate ; head inflected under the 
thorax ; thorax margined ; lip clavate, 
emarginate ; jaw one-toothed| pinnate. 
There are three species, viz. the viridis, the 
niger, and the lineatus. 
MEMBER, in architecture, denotes any 
part of a building; as a frieze, corniche, or 
the like. This word is also sometimes used 
for the moulding. See Moulding. 
MEMBRANE, in anatomy, a pliable 
texture of fibres, interwoven together in the 
same plane. 
MEMECYLON, in botany, a genus of 
the Octandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Calyciflor®. Onagr®, 
Jussieu. Essential character : calyx supe- 
rior, with a striated base and the margin 
quite entire ; corolla one-petalled ; anthers 
inserted into the side of the. apex of the fila- 
ment ; berry crowned with a cylindrical 
calyx. There are four species, natives of 
warm climates. 
MEMORY, a faculty of thehuman mind, 
whereby it retains or keeps the ideas it has 
once perceived. 
Memory, says Mr. Locke, is, as it were, 
the store-house of our ideas ; for the narrow 
mind of man not being capable of having 
many ideas under view at once, it was ne- 
cessary to have a repository in which to lay 
up those ideas which it may afterwards 
have use of. But our ideas being nothing 
but actual perceptions in tlie mind, whidr 
