MYO 
perennial gold of pleasure, Mr. Miller 
describes this as an annual plant, notwith- 
standing he gives it Linnaeus’s epithet of 
perenne; the lower leaves are large, jagged, 
and hairy; the stalks blanching out from 
the bottom ; leaves about four inches long, 
and two broad ; the stalks terminated by 
very long loose spikes of yellow flowers, 
succeeded by short pods with two joints, 
each including one roundish seed. Linnmus 
remarks, that the lower joint of the silicle 
is strict and abortive ; the upper globular, 
striated, one-seeded. Native of Germany; 
MYCTERIA, the ja6ira;in natural his- 
tory, a genus of birds of the order Grallae. 
Generic character : bill long and large, 
both mandibles bending upwards, the upper 
triangular ; nostrils small and lineal', and no 
tongue ; feet four-toed and cleft. M. 
Americana, or the American jabiru, is 
nearly six feet in length, and makes a nearer 
approach than any other bird to the size of 
the ostrich. It abounds in the level dis- 
tricts of Cayenne, and other parts of South 
America, feeds upon fish, of which it de- 
vours immense quantities, and builds in 
vast trees, laying only two eggs. It is ex- 
tiemely wild, when j’oung is used for food, 
but when old is hard and rancid. Many 
have supposed this to be the American 
ostrich of various authors, and Latham ex- 
presses himself rather confidently as of the 
same opinion. 
MYGINDA, in botany, so named in ho- 
nour of the most noble Francis a Mygind, 
Aulic Counsellor, well skilled in botany, 
and protector of the botanic garden at 
Vienna, a genus of the Tetrandria Tetragy- 
nia class and order. Natural order of Rham- 
ni, Jussieu. Essenti-al character : calyx 
four-parted ; petals four ; drupe globular. 
There are three species, natives of the West 
Indies. 
MYOPES. Those who by a natural de- 
fect have the cornea and crystalline humour 
too convex, are called myopes. This figure, 
which increases the quantity df refi'action, 
tends to render the rays of such pencils as 
are formed in the eye more convergent, so 
that the point where these same rays meet 
is on this side of the retina. Myopes see 
distinctly those objects only which are near, 
which send towards the eye rays more di- 
vergent, and thereby less disposed to con- 
verge, through the effect of refraction in the 
crystalline and otlier humours. This im- 
perfection being the reverse of that which 
affects the eye of presbytae, is remedied by 
the use of a glass slightly ^concave ; which, 
MYO 
increasing the divergence of the rays re- 
ceived by the eye, prolongs the pencils that 
are formed in the organ, and causes their 
summits to fall more exactly on the retina. 
Myopes seem to have a fondness for minute 
objects ; in general they write a very fine 
hand, and read in preference works that are 
printed in a small type, because by choosing 
dimensions suited to the narrow scope of 
their sight, they continue to embrace a 
greater number of objects at once. They 
have the habit also of closing, in a certain de- 
gree, the eyelids, when they wish to see ob- 
jects distinctly that are otlierwise distant 
for them. Two advantages have been 
ascribed t» this natural motion. On the 
one hand, by contracting the lid, access is 
given to a smaller portion of light. Now 
those who are myopes see objects tliat are si- 
tuated at a distance indistinctly, merely 
because the cones that are formed in the 
eye, as we have observed in the preceding 
paragraph, have their summit on this side 
the retina ; so that the prolongations of the 
rays of which these cones are the assem- 
blage, give rise to new cones, whose base 
meeting the bottom of the eye depicts a 
small circle there, instead of a simple point. 
Accordingly, when the number of rays in- 
troduced into the eye is diminished, that 
small circle is contracted, and the vision be- 
comes less confused. On the other hand, 
the eye-lids, by closing, exert a pressure on 
the organ that diminishes its convexity, and 
in part restores it to the form most fa- 
vourable to clearness of vision. 
MYOPORUM, in botany, a genus of 
the Didynamia Angiospermia class and or- 
der. Natural order of Personatae. Essen- 
tial character: calyx five-parted; corolla 
bell-shaped, with a spreading almost equal 
five-parted border ; berry one or two-seed- 
ed ; seeds two-celled. There are four spe- 
cies ; these plants ai'e natives of the islands 
of the South Sea. 
MYOSOTIS, in botany, scorpion-grass, 
a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class 
and order. Natural order of Asperifoli®. 
Boragine®, Jussieu. Essential character : 
corolla salver-shaped, five-cleft, emargi- 
nate ; tlie opening closed with arches. 
There are seven species, of which M..scor- 
pioides, mouse-ear scorpion-grass, has an 
annual fibrous root; stems several, procum- 
bent, erect; leaves alternate, entire, bent 
back a little at the edge ; tlie lower leaves 
are elliptic or oblong, the middle and up- 
per ones are lanceolate, from an inch and 
half to two inches in length; flowers in ra- 
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