M E R 
ftem, its more numerous flowers, its want of nectaries or 
barren llamens, and its imaller hairy feed-veflels. It alfo 
flowers late in the fummer; whereas dog's mercury flowers 
only in the fpring. Native of many parts of Europe; with 
us in wafte places and dunghills about towns and vil¬ 
lages ; feldom, as Miller obferves, found at a diftance from 
habitations ; hence he conjectures that it might originally 
have come from France, as its common name of French 
mercury implies. It is only mentioned by Gerard to grow 
under the dropping of the bifhop’s houfe at Rochefter, 
and by Parkinlon in Romney-marlh. It feems to be much 
more common now than formerly, which countenances 
its not having been originally indigenous. This plant i3 
mucilaginous, and was formerly much employed as an 
emollient Tournefort informs us, that the French made 
a fyrup of it, two ounces of which was given as a purge ; 
and that they ufed it in clyfters and peflaries, mixing 
one part of honey with one and a half of juice. In Eng¬ 
land it is now dilregarded. The feeds tafte like thole 
of hemp. 
Two hybrid varieties of this fpecies, one with linear 
or capillary leaves, and another with laciniated leaves, 
are delcribed and figured by Marchant in the Paris Me¬ 
moirs for 1719. 
4. Mercurialis elliptica, or Ihrubby mercury: Item crofs- 
branched,lhrubby; leaves elliptical, crenate,linooth. This 
Is undoubtedly a very diltinft lpecies, unknown to Lin¬ 
naeus. TheVhrubby perennial Hem, and the much fmaller, 
elliptical, obtufe,' crenate, not-ferrated, leaves, at once 
riiftinguilh it. The flowers are dioecious, axillary; the 
males in fliort, denfe, folitary, ftalked, lpikes; the fe¬ 
males on fingle-flowered, Ample, Ihorter, ftalks, two or 
three together. The leaves and young twigs have often, 
in the dry plant, a rcddilh or purpliih hue. Native of 
Faro in Portugal. 
5. Mercurialis longifolia, or long-leaved mercury : Item 
crofs-branched; leaves oblong, downy, green, with blunt 
lerratures ; fruit woolly. Delcribed by Lamarck from the 
herbarium of Thouin. Its native country is unknown. 
The Item is about a foot high, branched, flender, and 
weak, (lightly downy. Leaves ltalked, fpreading, oblong, 
or fomcwhat elliptical, about an inch and a half long, and 
not above five or fix lines broad, being of a much nar¬ 
rower (hape than thofe of any other fpecies. They are 
dark green, clothed on both fides with deprefled hairs, 
which render them rather filky j the margin lerrated, with 
fliort, blunt, glandular, curved, teeth. Flowers axillary, 
greenifti, dioecious; the males in folitary, flender, ftalked, 
lpikes ; females folitary, on limple fliort ftalks. 
6. Mercurialis tomentofa, or downy mercury: the whole 
plant finely downy and hoary; Item fomewhat flirubby ; 
leaves oblong, more or lefs ferrated. This fpecies is 
known from .all the reft by its white hoary afpeft, caufed 
by the .foft downy denfe hairs which clothe every part. 
The Item is mod branched in the male plant, the flowers 
of which grow in little round heads, either folitary, or 
feveral one above another, on Ample, folitary, axillary, 
ftalks. The female flowers are axillary, folitary, on Am¬ 
ple ftalks, on a feparate plant. Some female flowers, ne- 
verthelefs, are occafionally interfperfed on the former, 
as Gerard’s cut, borrowed from Clufius, well exprefles. 
The leaves of both are nearly fertile, oblong, acute, veiny, 
generally more or lefs ferrated, though fometimes nearly 
entire. The ideas of the ancient botanifts, from whence 
the :tbove names originated, are truly ablurd. They not 
only miltook the female plant for the male, on account 
of the ihape of the capfule, in which they were pleafed to 
find a certain anatomical refemblance ; but they gratui- 
toufly l'uppofed that the herb, on account of finch re¬ 
femblance, would be efficacious in procuring male chil¬ 
dren, while the real male plant was prelumed to favour 
the generation of girls. Native of Spain and the louth 
of France. 
7. Mercurialis Afra, or Cape mercury: Item proftrate, 
herbaceousj leaves ovate, hub tamer, to fie; flowers andro- 
M E R 1 W 
gynous. Male flowers many; females fewer, on the fame 
plant. Fruit oval, truncated, comprefled, grooved, with 
two ftyles, fiflile into two feeds. Found at the Cape of 
Good Hope by Koenig. 
8. Mercurialis Indica, or Indian mercury: ftem flirubby, 
branched ; leaves lanceolate, even; flowers three-ftyled. 
Stem upright, lix feet high, with round afeendingbranches. 
Native of Cochinchina. The freih leaves boiled in foup 
purge gently. 
In the firft edition of Sp. PI. 1036, occurs a Mercurialis 
procumbens, not quoted by that name in any fublequent 
work of Linnaeus. This however appears, by the lyno- 
nyms and his herbarium, to be Croton riciuocarpus, 
which fee, vol. v. p. 396. 
Propagation and Culture. The firft fpecies is eafily pro¬ 
pagated by the roots; the third by the feed, which it 
lcatters fio abundantly in gardens as to be a common 
weed. If the feeds of the fourth be permitted to fcat- 
ter, they will come up the following lpring; and, if fown, 
it Ihould be in the autumn. This plant fliould have 
a warm (ituation, and a dry rubbiftiy foil, in which it will 
live three or four years ; but in hard frolls it is frequently 
killed. See Acalypha, Chenopodium, Croton, Hy- 
drocotyle, Impatiens, and Tragia. 
MERCURIFICA'TION, J\ The aft of mixing any 
thing with quickfilver.—I add the ways of incrcurifica- 
tion. Bot/le. 
MERCU'RII (Girolamo), a phyfician and monk, re¬ 
markable for his adventures, was a native of Rome. In 
his youth he ftudied at the univerfities of Bologna and 
Padua, where he attended particularly to the Icience of 
medicine, one of his mailers in which was J. C. Aranzio. 
An inclination then ieized him of entering into the or¬ 
der of Dominicans, which he put in execution at Milan 
about 1568. He continued, however, to pradtife as a 
phyfician; and the novelty of uniting the two characters 
caufed him to be in great requeft. It alfo expofed him 
to obloquy; and at length, diflatisfled with his ambi¬ 
guous fltuation, he threw afide his religious habit, left 
the cloifter, and rambled through various provinces of 
Italy, afluming the name of Scipio, which was probably 
his baptifinal one. He travelled over feveral countries 
of Europe; and was two years in France, in 1572-3, 
as phyfician to the Commandant of the German troops 
under the duke de Joyeule. He refided feveral years at 
Pelchiera in the Veronele, where he was much elleemed 
by the inhabitants, whom he boafts of having freed from 
the bad effedts of the infalubrious air to which they were 
expofed. He purchafed a farm there, and refilled oilers 
from the pope and republic of Venice to come and little 
in their ftates. At length he was touched with remorie 
for the delertion of his religious profeflion; and in 1601, 
having received abfolution for his olfence, he relumed his 
habit, and thenceforth lived in the performance of pious 
exerciles. He continued, however, to pradlile medicine 
for charity, and employed himlelf in the publication of 
thofe oblervations which he had colledled during the 
courfe of a long experience. He died at Rome about the 
year 1615. His moll popular work is entitled Commare 
o Raccoglitrice, 1601, and frequently re-edited, Its fub- 
jedts are chiefly the treatment of pregnant and puerperal 
women, and of children. Another of his works was 
Dcgli errori popolavi d'Italia , 1603; a verbole but amuling 
performance, containing much curious information rela¬ 
tive to the opinions and culloms of the times, and ufie- 
fully corredhng many errors, whillt it inculcates others. 
1 'iraboJc/U. 
MER'CURY, in mythology, the fon of Jupiter and 
Maia. He was the god of merchandile, and therefore was 
fometimes painted with a wand in his left hand, and a bag 
of money in his right. He was alfo the god of eloquence, 
and the meflenger of the gods ; and, as fiuch, concerned 
in all treaties of peace and alliance. He is pidlured, there¬ 
fore, with a herald’s Half in his hand, entwined with two 
flukes; wings on his feet, to (how iris fpsed ; and a broad- 
krjsamei 
