MYRMECODIA 
48g 
Myrica Linn. Myricaceae. 40 sp. Eur., As., Afr., Am., esp. sub-trop. 
M. Gale L., the sweet gale or bog-myrtle, is frequent in Brit, in 
mountain bogs. Its leaves have a pleasant resinous smell when 
rubbed or on hot days. The firs, are in short catkins, achlamydeous. 
The^ has usually 2 bracteoles and 4 sta. (2 — 16); the ? 2 — 4 brac- 
teoles and 2 syncarpous cpls. with one erect orthotropous ovule. The 
fruit is a nut, the exocarp secreting wax. M. cerifera L. (N. Am., 
wax-myrtle or bay-berry) and other sp. are used as sources of wax, 
to procure which the fruits are boiled. 
Myricaceae. Dicotyledons (Archichl. Myricales). Only genus 
Myrica (q.v.). Placed in Unisexual es by Benth. -Hooker, injuglandi- 
florae by Warming. 
Myricaria Desv. Tamaricaceae. 10 sp. Scandinavia to China. 
Myriocarpa Benth. Urticaceae. 6 sp. trop. Am. Firs. 00, in catkins. 
Myriophyllum Ponted. ex Linn. Haloragidaceae. 18 sp. cosmop.; 2 in 
Brit, (water milfoil). Water plants, submerged, with usually whorled 
much-divided leaves, borne on shoots that spring from the rhizome- 
like stems creeping on the ground. Land forms are occasionally 
produced in some sp. The infl. projects above water; and the firs, are 
wind-fertilised. Hibernation by winter-buds as in Utricularia. [See 
P- X 59 -] 
Myristica Linn. Myristicaceae. 150 sp. trop., esp. As. Trees with 
2 -ranked exstip. evergreen leaves and dioecious regular firs. P (3), 
simple (cf. Monodora); A (3 — 18), extrorse; G 1, with 1 basal 
anatropous ovule. The fruit is a berry, but splits by both sutures, 
disclosing a large seed — the nutmeg — with a curious branched red 
aril — the mace — around it. Endosperm ruminate. The nutmeg of 
commerce is the seed of M. fragrans Houtt. (M. moschata Thunb.), 
a native of the Moluccas. 
Myristicaceae. Dicotyledons (Archichl. Ranales). Only genus Myris- 
tica (q.v.). Placed in Micrembryae by Benth. -Hooker, in Polycar- 
picae by Warming. [See Warburg in Bot. Cent. 64, p. 204.] 
Myrmecodia Jack. Rubiaceae (11. 15). 18 sp. Indo-mal. Epiphytes 
with leafy stems. The base of the stem forms a large tuber fastened 
to the support by adventitious roots. The tuber presents a very 
remarkable structure, being composed of a large mass of tissue, chiefly 
cork, penetrated by numerous communicating galleries and chambers, 
which are inhabited by ants. These galleries are formed in a peculiar 
way ; after germination the hypocotyl swells into a small parenchy- 
matous tuber, and in this, in an axial direction, there appears a hollow 
cylinder of phellogen (p. 158) which proceeds to form cork on its 
inner side and parenchyma on the outer, thus adding to the bulk of 
the tuber and at the same time forming in it a hollow space (for 
the tissue within the cylinder of cork dies and dries up) open to the 
surface. Near the outer surface of the tuber is a phellogen layer 
acting in the ordinary way, forming a bark. As the tuber grows 
