M O N 
mi 
tions; for. Lalande was the warm friend and admirer of 
the no lefs eminent aftronomer La Caiile, whom le Mon¬ 
nier mortally hated ; and a clofe friendship fubfifted be¬ 
tween le Monnier and d’Alembert, with whom Lalande 
had no friendly intercourle. Le Monnier died at Herds, 
near Bayeux, in 1799, leaving behind him three daugh¬ 
ters, all married ; the fecond of them to the celebrated 
mathematician La Grange. His brother, Louis-William, 
the phyfician, died the fame year. 
Le Monnier poflefled a great many valuable mann- 
fcripts, and a multitude of excellent obfervations, which 
he was very fond of keeping to himfelf, and which, in the 
latter period of his life, he never made known. Befides 
others, he had a feries of important obfervations of the 
moon, and a great many obfervations of ftars, made for a 
catalogue which he announced fo early as the year 174.1 ; 
and among which were two of the new planet Uranus, 
Herfchel, or Georgium Sidus. The more he was entreat¬ 
ed to communicate them to the public, the more obllinate 
he became in withholding them ; and he even fometimes 
threatened to deftroy them. When the revolution broke 
out, Lalande, who was exceedingly anxious for the pre- 
fervation of thefe papers, made an attempt to get them 
into his poffeflion, but without fuccefs. He could only 
learn that le Monnier had concealed them under the roof 
of his houfe. His principal publifhed works are, 1. I11- 
ftitutions Aftronomiques, 1748, 8vo. 2. Abrege de Pi¬ 
lotage, publilhed by Conbert, hydrographer, of Breft, in 
1762; and with additions, in 1766, 8vo. 3. Aftronomie 
Nautique-lunaire, 011 l’on traite de la Latitude et de la 
Longitude en Mer, 1771, 8vo. 4. Expofition des Moyens 
de refoudre plufieurs Queftions dans l’Art de la Naviga¬ 
tion, 1772, i2ino. 5. Tradu&ion du Traite Suedois de 
la Conitrudtion des Vailfeaux par Chapman, 1779, fol. 
6. Effais fur les Marees, 1774, 8vo. 7. Lois lur le Mag- 
netifm, 1776, 8vo. 8. Defcription des principaux Inftru- 
mens d’Aftronomie, 1774, avec 14 grandes planches. 9. 
Memoires concernant diverfes QueftionS d’Altronomie, 
de Navigation, et de Phyfique, 1781, 1784, 2 vols. 4to. 
10. Nouveau Zodiaque, reduit a l’annee 1755; new edi¬ 
tion, 1773, 8vo. 11. Obfervations du Paffage de Venus 
fur le Dilque du Soieil, 1761, qto. 12. Tranflation of 
Maclaurin’s Fluxions, 1765, 8vo. Thefe works were all 
publilhed at Paris. Gen. Biog. vol. vii. x. Phil. Mag. 
vol. vi. 
MONNI'ER (Le), a French abbe, and a literary cha- 
ra£ler, who flourifhed at the fame time with the pre¬ 
ceding. He was a member of the National Inftitute 
during the time of the republic ; and w'e have the follow- 
ing traits of his character, read at the fitting of that 
body loon after his deceale. “ Fables well conceived, 
written with facility, dialogued with naivete, are the firft 
of his titles to literary glory. The fecond is, his faithful 
and elegant tranflation of Terence, a Latin writer, who 
firft inverted Thalia with decency, dignity, and regularity. 
Le Monnier alfo happily tranflated Perfius, 
Qui dans fes vers obfcurs, rnais ferres & preffans, 
Affedla d’enfermer moins de mots que de fens. 
He alfo wrote fome tales and dramatic pieces lefs known, 
with a literary badinage which formed his diftinctive cha¬ 
racter. The finefte natural to the country which gave 
him birth, the ci-devant Normandy, added fomething 
pungent to the plain nature which reigns indiis poetry. 
Under the appearances of hon-hommie, he concealed traits 
worthy of Marot and of Rabelais. When timorous or 
gloomy cenfors had power over thought, one of them re¬ 
filled his approbation to one of the fables of Le Monnier. 
fn reprefenting a horfe expiring under an opprelfive load, 
the poet fhowed how ill princes underltood'their intereft, 
who burdened their people with exceflive imports. He 
added : “ Ce que je vous dis-la, je le dirois au roi.” The 
cenforerafed thisverfe; the poet defended it, but was 
obliged to yield to the obftinacy of the Ariftarchus. Af¬ 
ter taking a turn or two in the llreet, Le Monnier returns, 
M O N 
reciting this new verfe,. “ Ce que je vous dis-lit, je le 
dirois ... tais-toi.” This alteration was approved, and 
the cenlor did not perceive that the fatincal trait was 
only better feafoned by it. With this hatred for abufes, 
Le Monnier faw with joy the commencement of a revolu¬ 
tion which promifed a reform of them. The inhabitants 
of the village of which he was cure had found him, till 
then, a. father, tender, compaflionate, and generous to 
profufion; they now found him a prudent and enlight¬ 
ened guide: terror, however, which refpe&ed neither ta¬ 
lents nor virtues, threw him, during eighteen months, 
into a prifon, from which he would not have come out, 
without a 9th Thermidor, unlefs to mount a fcaffold. He 
came out of it, however ; and, what is no flight trait in 
his charafter, without having loft any thing of his love 
for a republic.” L’abbe le Monnier died in the year 1796, 
at the age of feventy-two. Monthly Mag. vol. iv. 
MONNIE'RES, a town of France, in the department 
of the Lower Loire : four miles north-weft of Clifton. 
MONNIE'RIA, f. [fo named by Loading and Linnteus, 
in honour ot Louis-William le Monnier, brother to the 
celebrated aftronomer, and firft phyfician to Louis XV. 
who accompanied Cafiini through the fouthern provinces 
of France, in the fummer of 1739, an d fubjoined an 
account of their natural hiftory, particularly their more 
curious plants, to the geometrical remarks of that aftro¬ 
nomer. M. le Monnier was greatly inftrumental in pro¬ 
moting the hardy exotics into France; and he had a 
choice garden at Verlailles. Another genus had been, 
previously dedicated to this able botanift by Juflieu; but 
this was reduced by Linmeus, and fubfequent writers, to 
Gratiola : fee that article.] In botany, a genus of the 
clals diadelphia, order pentandria. Generic characters— 
Calyx: perianthium inferior, in five deep, unequal, per¬ 
manent, fegments; the upper one longeft, linear, in¬ 
curved over the flower; the lateral one on the outer fide 
lanceolate, half as long ; the reft ftill ftiorter, and obtufe. 
Corolla: of one petal, Ihorter than the upper fegment of 
the calyx, ringent; tube cylindrical, narrowed: in the 
middle, curved; upper lip ovate, obtufe, undivided; 
lower in four equal, parallel, ftraight, oblong, obtufe, deep 
fegments; neCtary an ovate fcale, at the bale of the ger- 
men, within the lower filament. Stamina: filaments two, 
dilated, membranous; the uppermoft concave, cloven at 
the extremity; the lowermolt flat, three-cleft; anthers; 
on the upper filament two, combined, hairy within, em¬ 
bracing the ftigma ; on the lower three, very minute, cy¬ 
lindrical, probably fterile. Piftiilum : germen fuperior, 
roundifli, five-angled, five-lobed; ftyle folitary, thread- 
lhaped ; ftigma capitate, oblong, flattened within, orbicu¬ 
lar, lharp-edged. Pericarpium : capfules five, ovate, fhort, 
comprefted, of one cell, divided half way down into two 
valves. Seeds: folitary, ovate, tubercular, filling the cap- 
fule, ftraighter and blunter at their inner margin, each 
enclofed in a tunic of two fmooth elaftic valves. 
Monnieria trifolia, the only lpecies known, was ga¬ 
thered by Loefling at Cumana in South America, and by 
Aublet in the meadows and cultivated land of Cayenne 
and Guiana. Root annual and fibrous. Stem,about a 
foot high, repeatedly forked, leafy, round; the upper part 
rough with minute hairs, curved upward. Leaves ternate, 
on hairy llalks, the lower ones oppofite, the reft ufually 
alternate ; leaflets nearly equal, above an inch long, ovate, 
entire, pale green, hairy, efpecially the edges and ribs, 
thickly befprinkled on both fides with fmall refinous dots, 
the middle one flightly ftalked. Flowers in terminal, fo¬ 
litary, cloven, divaricated, Ample, clufters, rather than 
fpikes, with a folitary flower between, at the bale; calyx 
hairy; corolla white. Capfules pale, and dotted like 
the leaves ; feeds dark grey, almoft black, rough with pro¬ 
minent points. This is Ihown on the preceding Plate, at 
fig. 2. 
MONNOY'E, a town of France, in the department of 
the Indre and Loire: fix miles north of Tours. 
MONNO'YE (Bernard de la), a diftinguilhed man of 
letters. 
