ms m r c 
MICH'EEBACH, a town of Germany, in the county 
©f Limburg: four miles north of Geildorf. 
MICHELBACH'LEIM, a citadel of Germany, in the 
county of Limburg; two miles weft-fouth-weft of Lim¬ 
burg. 
MICH'ELBERG, a town of the duchy of Carinthia t 
five miles north-call of Willach. 
MICHEL'DA. See Mucheln. 
MICH'ELFELD, a town of Germany, in the margra- 
vate of Anfpach : two miles fouth of Maynbernheim. 
MICH'ELREED. See Microd. 
MICHE'LI (Pietro Antonio), an eminent botanill, 
■Was born at Florence in 1679, of parents in an humble 
condition of life. He was dellined to the bookfelling 
trade; but the perulal of Matthiolus infpired him with 
inch a love for botany, that he lpent all his time in her- 
borifation, and in the ftudy of fuch other books on the 
fcience as he could procure. He was affifted in his bota¬ 
nical purfuits by Pome 'well-informed perfons then in Flo¬ 
rence; and at length became fo devoted to them, that 
he entirely forfook all other employments. Nature had 
admirably fitted him for inveftigation ; for he was fully 
mailer of his imagination, and could be contented with 
nothing lefs than proof derived from aCtual infpe&ion; 
and he poffefled an extraordinary lagacity in detecting' 
thofe efiential marks in individuals upon which fpecific 
and generic characters are founded. He obtained a libe¬ 
ral patron in the marquis Colimo de Calliglione, in whole 
family a talle for botany has been almoll hereditary, and 
for whom Micheli in his early youth made a collection of 
umbelliferous plants, which even then proved his accu¬ 
racy and difcernment. This gentleman introduced him 
to the celebrated count Magalotti, (fee that article,) by 
whom he was prefented to his fovereign, the grand duke 
Cofmo III. The Inftitutiones Rei Herbaria of Tourne- 
fort had jull appeared at Paris; and the firft pledge of 
the grand duke’s favour was a prefent of that book, 
•which to Micheli, who had hitherto found the want of 
fome fyftematic guide, was a moll important and welcome 
acquifition. He Ipeedily adopted the tone of his leader, 
with refpeCl to generic diftinCtions and definitions, and 
improved upon him in a more frequent adaptation of 
original Ipecific ones. 
In the autumn of 1706, the care of the public garden at 
Florence, founded by Cofmo I. was confided to Micheli, 
fce being appointed botanill to the grand duke. He was 
commifiioned to travel, not only in Italy, but in various 
diftant countries, to colleCt plants, and to eltabiilh a cor- 
refpondence, for the benefit of his trull. By the co-ope¬ 
ration of his friends Franchi and Gualtieri, the garden 
was enriched from the then more flourilhing one at Pila; 
and a Botanical Society was inllituted at Florence in 1717, 
which greatly promoted the interells of the fcience. In 
the fummer of that year, the great William Sherard, re¬ 
turning from Smyrna to England, vilited Florence in his 
way, and formed a friendlhip with Micheli, that conti¬ 
nued till his own deceafe in 1728. A frequent correfpon- 
dence, and interchange of fpecimens, took place between 
them, as amply appears by the collections preierved at 
Oxford, and by the writings of Micheli. 
His firft publication was Rclasione dell' Erla dctta da 
Rotanici Oiohanche, (8vo. 1723.) an account of the herb 
-orobanche, or broom-rape, which had become a great 
nuifance in the Tuican territory, with directions how to 
deftroy it. His great work, Nova P’antarum Genera juxta 
Tourncforti Methodum difpojita , appeared in 1729, in folio, 
with 108 plates. It is termed by Haller, “ nobile et me- 
morabile opus.” It profelfes to give fourteen hundred 
fpecies hitherto unoblerved, of which the greater part are 
gralfes, carexes, and the cryptogamous tribe. Though 
iome of thefe were already defcribecl, and not a few varie¬ 
ties are reckoned as Ipecies, yet the work made a great 
addition to botanical knowledge. Some of the minute 
parts which Micheli thought he had difcovered, fuch as 
the antkeiie of the fungi, have not hue e been obferved. 
MIC 
Mode'll, difinterefted, and unambitious, Micheli lived 
content in fcientific poverty, “ in tenui re beatus,” as 
his epitaph expreffes, having no other preferment than 
that of botanill to the grand-duke of Tufcany, and fuper- 
intendant of the botanical garden at Florence ; which 
fituation fo well luited him, that he refufed all oilers of 
fettling in foreign countries. He derived his greateft 
pleafure from his herborifations in the pleafant and ro¬ 
mantic traCls of Italy. A laborious expedition of this 
kind to Monte Baldo, and other parts of Lombardy, un¬ 
dertaken for the purpofe of collecting plants for the pub¬ 
lic gardens of Florence and Pifa, was the cauie of his 
death. The inclemency of the weather brought on an 
inflammation of the lungs, of which he died in January 
1737, at the age of fifty-feven. His friends ereCled a 
marble monument to his memory in the church of Santa 
Croce, near thofe of Michael Angelo, Galileo, and other 
great men. 
The great merit of Micheli confilts in his accurate fcien¬ 
tific illullration of fome of the moll difficult tribesof plants, 
which Tournefort had left unattempted. The order of 
the Calamaris, and particularly the difficult genus Carex, 
firil afiumed an intelligible form under his hands. The 
feeds of the latter, and their coverings, were firlt reforted 
to, with the happieft efteCt, for fpecific diferimination. 
A vaft number of fpecies of the hitherto-negleCied genus 
Lichen were afeertained and well delineated. It is with 
great injullice that Dillenius, whofe figures of the crufta- 
ceous and imbricated Lichens are the meanell part of his 
work, charges Micheli with erring on the fide of luxu¬ 
riance in his reprefentations. He had indeed more fa¬ 
vourable fubjeCts of inveftigation, owing to the climate 
in which he lived; for in Italy the plants in queftion are 
found vaftly more luxuriant and prolific than in the north 
of Europe. The parts of the flowers of mofies, properly 
fo called, were firft dilplayed in the work of Micheli, 
though he did not .underhand their real ules. He was 
equally fuccefsful in the collateral families, now termed 
Hepaticae, founding the genera of Blafia, Marfilea, Jun- 
germannia, Sphserocqrpus, Anthoceros, Targionia, &c. 
In the natural order of Fungi, till then almoll totally 
negleCted, he dilplayed great accuracy and originality, 
and gave the firft fynoptical diftribution of thofe difficult 
vegetables, by which his followers have profited. Many 
genera of the more perfeCt or phamogamic plants are alio 
illuftrated or founded in this work of Micheli; but nei¬ 
ther their diftinCtions nor their nomenclature is, in ge-» 
neral, fo good as the former. 
He had alfo extended his ftudies to the fubmarina 
plants, or fea-weeds; and had numerous plates engraved 
for publication in a fecond volume, had his life been pro¬ 
longed. Of thefe plates a let of impreffions, procured 
by the late lord Bute, was bought at his lordlhip’s fale, 
by fir Jofeph Banks, and is, through his liberality, accef- 
fible to all. Another fet, now in the Linnaean library, 
was given to its prefent pofleflbr by Dr. Targioni Toz- 
zetti of Florence, whofe father purchaled all Micheli’s 
remains, among which are valuable manuferipts of va T 
rious.kinds; elpecially the deferiptions of thefe plates. 
There are likewife Ibme rude drawings of Orchideae, the 
work we believe of Micheli himfelf. His pencil, however, 
was not fufficiently excellent to enable him to be in ge¬ 
neral his own draughtfman; Hill lefs could he, like Dil¬ 
lenius, engrave the plates he publilhed. In ftudying the 
above-mentioned marine productions, it is not wonder¬ 
ful, nor reprehenlible, that he then confounded corals 
and corallines with plants, and made a genus out of the 
prefent Sertularia, which he called Dillenia. 
Micheli had prepared an alphabetical catalogue of the 
plants in the garden of which he had the fuperintendence. 
This was publilhed in 174.8, in folio, with leven botanical 
plates, befides a plan of the garden, under the title of ■C«- 
talogus Plmtarum Horti Ccejarei Florentini; for the race 
of the Medici, and the golden age of Florence, had now 
.pafffid away. Their imperial Aicceflors, however, patro- 
f, fuzed 
