MON 
MON 
was likewise attributed to them of the high- 
est excellence. 
MONOECIA, in botany, one of Lin- 
nzBus's classes of plants, the. twenty-first in 
order; in which the male and female flowers 
are placed separately on the same plant, or 
rather on different stalks growing from the 
same root. The plants in this class arc not 
hermaphrodite : nor male and female upon 
the different roots; but androgynous ; that 
is, they consist of male and female flowers 
upon different parts of the same plant. The 
orders in this class are derived from the 
number, union, and situation of the stamina, 
or male organs. 
MONOGRABI, a character or cypher, 
composed of one, two, or more letters, 
interwoven; being a kind of abbreviation 
of a name, antiently used as a seal, badge, 
arras, &c. The use of arms is very ancient, 
as appears from Plutarch, and from some 
Greek medals of the time of Philip of Bla- 
cedon and Alexander his son. The Roman 
labariira bore the monogram of Jesus Christ, 
which consisted of two letters, a P placed 
perpendicularly through the middle of an 
X, as we find it on many medals in the 
time of Constantine, these being the two 
first letters of the word xpiXTOS. Thus 
under the eastern empire it i? usual to find 
MIK, which are the monogram of Blary, 
Jesus, Constantine. 
MONOGYNIA, in botany, the name of 
the first order or subdivision in the first 
thirteen classes of the Linnman system, 
consisting of plants, which, besides their 
-agreement in the elassic character gene- 
rally derived from the number of stamina, 
have only one style or female o)gan. 
MONOTONY, an uniformity of sound, 
,or a fault in pronunciation, when a long 
series of words are delivered in one unva- 
ried tone. 
MONOTROPA, in botany, a genus of 
the Decandria Blonogynia class and order. 
Essential character : calyx none ; petals 
ten, the five outer hollowed melliferous at 
the base ; capsule five-valved. There are 
two species, viz. M. hypopithys, yellow 
bird’s nest ; and M. uniflora, natives of 
North America, and many parts of Eu- 
rope. 
MONSONIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of Lady Ann Monson, a genus of 
the Monadelpliia Dodecandria class and 
order. Natural order of Gruinales. Ge- 
rania, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx 
five-leaved ; corolla five-petalled ; stamina 
fifteen, united into five filaments ; style 
five-cleft ; capsule five grained. There are 
three species, all natives of the Cape of 
Good Hope. 
MONSOON, in physiology, a species of 
trade wind, in the East Indies, which for 
six months blows constantly the same way, 
and the contrary way the other six months. 
However, it ought to be observed, that 
the points of the compass from whence the 
monsoons blow, as well as the times of their 
shifting, differ in different parts of the In- 
dian ocean. 
The cause of monsoons is this : when the 
sun approaches the northern tropic, there 
are countries, as Arabia, Persia, India, &c. 
which become hotter, and reflect more heat 
than the seas beyond the equator, which the 
sun has left ; the winds, therefore, instead 
of blowing from thence, to the parts under 
the equator, blow the contrary way; and, 
w'hen the sun leaves those countries, and 
draws near the other tropic, the winds turn 
about, and blow on the opposite point of 
the compass. See Wind. 
MONTGOLFIER (Stephen James), 
in biography, famous as the inventor of 
aerostatic balloons, was born at Annonay, 
thirty-six miles from Lyons, and there car- 
ried on an extensive manufacture of paper, 
in conjunction with his brother Joseph. 
They were distinguished for their ingenuity 
in this branch, and were the first in Franca 
who made the beautiful vellum paper. It 
is said, that the incident of covering a cof- 
fee-pot, in which water w-as boiling, with a 
spherical cap of paper, which rose in the 
air as the water heated, first gave him the 
idea of an air-balloon. Others aflirm, that 
reflecting on the ascent of smoke and 
clouds in the atmosphere sugirested the 
hint. However this were, it appears that 
Stephen, in the middle of November, 1782, 
made an experiment at Avignon with a bag 
of fine silk, of the shape of a parallelopi- 
pedon, and of forty cubic feet in capacity, 
to the aperture of which he applied burning 
paper till it was filled with a kind of cloud, 
when it ascended rapidly to the ceiling. 
This experiment was repeated by the two 
brothers at Annonay, with a success that 
induced them to form a machine of the ca- 
pacity of six hundred and fifty cubic feet, 
which filled in like manner with smoke, 
ascended to the height of six hundred feet. 
They proceeded enlarging the experiment, 
till they had constrncted a globe of linen, 
lined with paper, of the capacity of twen- 
ty-three thousand four hundred and thirty 
cubic feet, which, inflated with the smoke 
