t>:32 M O L 
MOLLU'GO, f. [a name in Pliny, book xxvt. which he 
indicates as belonging to a plant rough both in foliage and 
flavour. Linnatus retains it for a genus of a fmooth and 
tender habit; to which, if derived from mollis, it would be 
mbit fuitable.] African Chickweed; in botany, a genus 
of the clafs triandria, order trigynia, natural order of ca- 
ryophyllei. Generic characters—Calyx: perianthium five¬ 
leaved ; leaflets oblong, from upright fpreading, coloured 
within, permanent. Corolla: none. Stamina: filaments 
three, briftle-fnapcd, fliorter than the corolla, approxi¬ 
mating to the piftil; anthene iimple. Piftillum : germ 
fuperior, ovate, three-grooved ; fiyles three, very fliort; 
ftigmas blunt; (ftyle one, trifid at top. Gartner.) Peri- 
carpium: capfule ovate, three-celled, three-valved. Seeds : 
numerous, kidney-form.— EJfential C/iaradcr. Calyx five- 
leaved ; corolla none ; capfule three-celled, three-valved. 
There are feven fpecies. 
x. Mollugo oppolitifolia, or oppofite-leaved mollugo : 
leaves oppoiite, lanceolate ; branches alternate ; pedun¬ 
cles lateral, cluttered, one-flowered. This is an annual 
herb (as indeed all the reft are), with long diffufed finooth 
alternate branches. Leaves linooth, ending in petioles. 
Eaten in falads b} r the poor. Native of Ceylon. 
2. Mollugo ftrifta, or upright mollugo : leaves com¬ 
monly in fours, lanceolate; flowers panicled, nodding; 
Item eredl, angular. Root fibrous. Stems three or four, 
ft iff, even ; leaves in whorls, frequently in fours, ftiff, acu¬ 
minate, even. Flowers nodding, white, refembling tliofe 
of M. verticillata. Native of Africa, Ceylon, and Japan. 
3. Mollugo hirta, or hairy mollugo : leaves in fours, 
cbovate, villofe; Item decumbent. Native of the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
4. Mollugo pentaphylla, or five-leaved mollugo : leaves 
in fives, obovate, equal ; flowers panicled. Root-leaves 
oblong, narrowed at the bale, blunt at the end. Stems 
decumbent, branching immediately from the ground ; 
with four or five leaflets at each ramification, one-third 
only of the fize of the others. From the axils of thefe 
fpring very long peduncles, having the flowers collected 
at top in an umbel, or rather panicle: they are white, 
and are fucceeded by a very thin, linooth, membranace¬ 
ous, capfule, containing very fmall blackifh feeds. Na¬ 
tive of Ceylon. Jhirm. Zeyl. xiii. t. 8. f. 1. 
5. Mollugo nudicaulis, or naked-leaved mollugo: leaves 
obovate, all radical; Items panicled, forked, naked ; flow¬ 
ers four-cleft. Native of Ceylon, Burmann, t. 8. f. 2. of 
Sierra Leone, Afzelius. Linnaeus confounded this with 
the laft, not perceiving that Burmann had figured two 
very different plants in his tab, 8. without numbering 
them ; and he cites t. 8. f. 1, 2. This, by an error of the 
prefs, is become 12, which Willdenow copies. Burmann 
refers to a wrong fynonym in Sloane, but he deferibes the 
prefent fpccies very well, as having all the leaves at the 
root, with very long radical flower-ltalks, and four-cleft 
flowers ; all which circumftances diftinguilh it from the 
preceding. 
6. Mollugo verticillata, or whorl-leaved mollugo, or 
African chickvveed : leaves in whorls wedge-form, acute ; 
llera fubdivided, decumbent ; peduncles one-flowered. 
This is a trailing plant, fpreading out eight or nine inches 
every way, and having fix or feven fmall leaves at each 
joint, fpreading out in form of a ftar. Flowers fmall, 
like thofe of chickweed, one on each footftalk; fucceeded 
by oval capfules, filled with fmall feeds, about twelve in 
each cell, fubglobular, beaked, marked on the back with 
three acute prominent lines, very fmooth, fhining ferru¬ 
ginous or deep'chefnut, faftened to the central angle of 
the cells by umbilical chords'. Native of Virginia and Ja¬ 
maica, where it is pretty common in the dry favannas of 
Liguanee. Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1759. 
7. Mollugo triphylla, or three-leaved mollugo: leaves 
in threes, lanceolate; flowers dichotomous. Stem herba¬ 
ceous, annual, diffufed, four-cornered, half a foot high, 
with ternate branches. Leaves fteilate-tern, fmooth, quite 
entire, fefiiic. Flowers apetalous, lateral and terminating, 
M O L 
on long dichotomous peduncles, racemed at the top. 
Native of China near Canton. 
Propagation and Culture: If the feeds be permitted to 
fcatter, the plants will fometimes come up the following 
fpring ; but, it they are town on a hot-bed, they will 
come up more certainly, and the plants will be forwarder 
and ftronger. See Galium,, Oldenlandia, Pharna- 
ceum, Polycarpon, and Queria. 
MOLLUS'CA, f. [mollis, Lat. loft.] The fecond order 
of vermes or worms. Thefe are Ample naked animals, 
not included in a (hell, but furnithed with limbs. It con¬ 
tains thirty-two genera, in feven divifions, according to 
the pofition of the mouth. See the article FIelmintho- 
logy, vol. ix. p. 339, 349. 
MOL'MAN, f. in our old writers, a man fubjedf to do 
fervice. It is applied to the fervants in a monaftery. 
MOLMASE'CA, a town of Spain, in the province of 
Leon : twenty miles weft of Aftorga. 
MOLMU'TIUS, a man’s name ; the fixteerrth king of 
the Britons, who is faid to have begun his reign four 
hundred and forty years before the incarnation. Fie was 
the firft who publiflicd any laws in this land ; and they 
continued till the time of William the Conqueror. 
MOLNPAT'TY, a town of the ifland of Ceylon -. eigh¬ 
teen miles north-weft of-Trincomalee. 
MO'LO, a philofopher of Rhodes, called alfo Apollo¬ 
nius. Some are of opinion that Apollonius and Molo are 
two different perfons, who were both natives of Alabanda, 
and difciples of Menecles, of the fame place ; that they 
both vilited Rhodes, and there opened a fchool ; but that 
Molo flourifhed fome time after Aoollonius. Molo had 
Cicero and J. Ctcfar among his pupils. 
MO'LOCH, or Molech, [Heb. a king.] The chief 
and peculiar deity of the Ammonites, wdio are faid, by 
Voflius and others, to have worftiipped the Sun under this 
appellation, and to have facrificed their children to him. 
In the feripture it is frequently affected that the Ammo¬ 
nites “ palled their feed through fire unto Moloch.” As 
to the meaning of this expreffion, there is a confiderable 
disagreement. Some think the children leaped over a 
fire lacred to Moloch ; others, that they palled between, 
two fires ; and others, that they were really burnt in the 
fire, by way of facrifice to the god. There is foundation 
for each of thefe opinions. For, firft, it was ufual among 
the pagans to luftrate or purify with fire ; and, in the next 
place, it is exprefsly faid, that the inhabitants of Sephar- 
vnim burnt their children in the fire to Anamelech and 
Adramelech ; much fuch deities as Moloch of the Am¬ 
monites. Near Jerulalem there was a place in which this 
horrid cuftom was obferved ; it was called the Valley of 
the Sons of Hinnom, fo named, as it is faid, from the 
fhrieks of the children that were facrificed ; and alfo To- 
phet'n, from a Hebrew word toph, fignifying a drum or 
tabret, which they ufed, among other in.ftruments, to 
drown the cries of the victims. Moloch was r.enrefented 
among the Ammonites under the monftrous figure of a 
man and a calf. About the feet of the ftatue were con- 
ftrudfed feveral furnaces, into which they threw the 
children whom they offered up to that god. 
Mofes, in feveral places, forbids the Ifraelites to dedi¬ 
cate their children to this god as the Ammonites did, and 
threatens utter extirpation to fuch as were guilty of 
this abominable idolatry. And there is great probability 
that the Hebrews were much addidted to the worlhip of 
this deity; iince Amos, and after him St. Stephen, re¬ 
proaches them with having carried along with them into 
the wildernefs the tabernacle of their god Moloch. Solo¬ 
mon built a temple to Moloch upon the Mount of Olives; 
and Manafleh, a long time after, imitated his impiety, by 
making his fon pafs through the fire in honour of Moloch. 
There are various lentiments concerning the relation 
which Moloch had to the other pagan divinities. Some 
believe he was the fame with Saturn, to whom it is well 
known that human facrifices were offered. Others fun- 
pole him to be Mercury 5 others, Mars; others, Mithras; 
2 and 
