SI 3 
M A L P 
epon his enquiries. His illuftrations of their anatomy, 
a's well as of their external configuration, even of fuch of 
their difeafes as arife from the attacks of infefts, whence 
the various kinds of galls are formed, are all no lefs faith¬ 
ful than original. As a vegetable phyfiologift, too, he 
doubtlefs advanced very far; and, that fubjeift being fo 
entirely new when he and Grew entered upon it, nothing 
could be more unjuft than to complain of the errors into 
which they have fallen. The principal of thefe, however, 
requires to be mentioned. They both conceived the woody 
fibres of plants to tranfmit the fap, though no perforation 
could be difcovered in them. If this hypothefis now ex¬ 
cite our wonder, we muft recollefl that no lefs a philolo- 
pher than Duhamel adopted, and laboured with all his 
might to fupport, the fame opinion. Grew went a ftep 
nearer the truth than Malpighi, when he obferved what 
they both took for trachea, or air-veffels, to be fometimes 
filled with fap ; but he did not hence correct his original 
idea of thofe fpriral-coated veflels being the lungs of plants, 
nor were they, till very lately, known to be the real fap- 
veffels, or arteries of the vegetable frame. Malpighi Opera. 
Hall. Bibl. Bot. Dryandr. Bibl. Banks. Gen. Biog. Phil. Tranf. 
Abr. vol. i. and iv. 
M ALPIG'HIA,/! [fo named by Plumier in honour of 
the fubjeft of the precedingarticle.] Barbadoes Cherry; 
in botany, a genus of the clafs decandria, order trigynia, 
natural order of trihilatre, (malpighise, jfujf.) The generic 
charaflersare—Calyx : perianthium five-leaved, erect, very 
fmall, permanent, converging. There are two melliferous 
glands, oval and gibbous, fattened to the calycine leaflets 
on the outfide and at the bottom. Corolla : petals five, 
kidney-form, large, plaited, ciliate, fpreading, concave, 
with long linear claws. Stamina: filaments ten, broadifh, 
awl-fhaped, ereft, placed in a cylinder, united below, 
fmall; antherse cordate. Piftillum: germ roundifh, very 
fmall; ftyles three, filiform; ftigmas blunt. (M. nitida 
has only a Angle ftyle.) Pericarpium : berry globular, 
torulofe, large, one-celled. Seeds : three, bony, oblong, 
blunt, angular, with an oblong blunt kernel.— EJfential 
Charabler. Calyx five-leaved, with melliferous pores on the 
outfide at the bafe; petals five, roundifh, with claws; 
berry one-celled, three-feeded. 
This genus confifts of trees and flirubs, fome of them 
climbing, natives of the Weft Indies. Leaves Ample, op- 
pofite, (except in N° 8.) fome briftly, the briftles fling¬ 
ing and free at both ends ; the petiole in many appendi- 
cled or dilated within at the bafe. Peduncles axillary or 
terminating, one or many flowered. In M. glabra, two 
divifions of the calyx are biglandular, two uniglandular, 
and one naked. M. nitida has only one ftyle: and it may 
be doubted whether it is properly placed here. 
Species, i. Malpighia glabra, or fmooth-leaved Barba¬ 
does cherry : leaves ovate, quite entire, fmooth ; pedun¬ 
cles umbelled. This tree ufually grows to the height of 
fixteen or eighteen feet; and we have feveral in England 
upwards of ten feet high. Browne fays, it is a fmall fhrub, 
which feldom rifes above fix or feven feet in height; that 
it is ereft in its growth, and divided into very delicate 
fiender branches. According to Sloane, however, it rifes 
to about fifteen feet, with feveral trunks, covered with a 
clay-coloured fmooth bark, and dividing into many fpread¬ 
ing branches, making a pleafant round head. Leaves op- 
pofite, fubfeflile, acute, continuing all the year. Flowers 
in axillary and terminating bunches or umbels, on pe¬ 
duncles half an inch long, and about four flowers on 
each. Petals rofe-colour or bright purple. Fruit red, 
round, the fize of a cherry, fmooth-fkinned, having one 
or more furrows on the outfide, and containing within a 
reddifh, fweetifh, not unpleafant, copious, juicy, pulp; 
and feveral triangular fulcated (tones, fo fitted together 
as to feem one round one, with feveral furrows on the 
outfide. This tree is planted in molt gardens in the Weft 
Indies, where in a little time after rain they feldom mifs 
having ripe fruit, which is efteemed pleafant there. It 
rows plentifully in mod of the iflands in the Weft Indies; 
ut whether it be natural there, or introduced only, is 
Vo u XIV. No. 968. 
I G FI I A. 
not eafy to determine; becatife the birds, being fond of 
the fruit, difperfe the trees every-where in great abun¬ 
dance. It ufually flowers here in March and April; but 
thefe flowers are feldom fucceeded by fruit: it flowers 
again in July, and, when the feafon is warm, fruit is often 
produced from thefe flowers; the plants being then're¬ 
moved into the open air. In the Kew Catalogue it is faid 
to flower fiom December to March; and to have been cul¬ 
tivated by Mr. Miller, in 1757. 
2. Malpighia punicifolia, or pomegranate-leaved Barba¬ 
does cherry: leaves ovate, quite entire, fmooth; pedun¬ 
cles one-flowered. This rifes with a fhrubby ftalk ten or 
twelve feet high, dividing into feveral fiender fpreading 
branches, covered with a light-brown bark. The flowers 
are produced in fmall umbels at the end of the brandies, 
upon fliort peduncles; corolla pale rofe-colour. Berry 
roundifh, pulpy, with feveral furrows, red when ripe, in- 
clofing three or four hard angular feeds : it is of the fame 
fize and make with our common Englifh cherries, very 
fucculent, and of a pleafant fubacid tafte. Native of the 
Weft Indies. Browne fays it had been but lately intro¬ 
duced into Jamaica. It was introduced here in 1690, by 
Mr. Bentinck. 
3. Malpighia nitida, or fhining-leaved Barbadoes cherry : 
leaves lanceolate, quite entire, fmooth ; fpikes lateral. 
This is a fhrub, a fathom in height. Stem upright, round, 
even, but throws out many {lender upright branches, and 
bears large hard berries, which are much eaten by turkeys 
and other fowls. According to Jacquin, the leaves are 
four inches long, ending in a blunt point; there is oniy a 
Angle ftyle, (perhaps the three were glued together fo as 
to appear one;) and the feeds are fmooth, commonly two 
in a berry. 
Mr. Miller fays, his nitida is ten feet high, the ftem co¬ 
vered with a light-brown fpotted bark ; the flowers conre 
out from the lide of the ftalks in fmall umbels, (landing 
ere< 5 l, on peduncles fcarcely an inch long; the corolla is 
of a pale bluifh-colour ; the berries are roundifh ind fur¬ 
rowed, covered with a red fkin, and contain three hard 
angular feeds. Native of the Weft Indies : common in 
Jamaica; about Carthagena in New Spain, where it was 
found by Houftoun, and fent to Miller; who therefore 
cultivated it before 1733. 
4. Malpighia faginea, or beech-leaved Barbadoes cherry: 
leaves oblong-ovate, entire, filky-fhining underneath ; pe¬ 
duncles three-parted, umbelled. 5. Malpighia lucida, or 
fhining-leaved Barbadoes cherry : leaves obovate, wedge- 
form, quite entire, nervelefs, fhining; peduncles termi¬ 
nating, many-flowered. Natives of the Weft Indies. 
6. Malpighia urens, or flinging Barbadoes cherry: leaves 
oblong-ovate, with rigid decumbent briftles underneath ; 
peduncles one-flowered, aggregate. This fhrub rifes with 
a ftrong upright ftem about three feet high, covered with 
a brown bark, fending out feveral fide-branches, which 
grow erefl. Leaves ending in acute points, feflile, covered 
with fine briftles, which do not appear unlefs clofely 
viewed : thefe briftles are double pointed, and fuftained 
by pedicels of the fame fragile tranfparent fubftance with 
themfelves, defeending from the middle of them ; thefe 
are eafily broken, but the briftles enter pretty deep in, and 
llick clofe to whatever has forced them off. The flowers 
come out upon long (lender peduncles from the axils at 
each joint, four, five, or fix, together, in a fort of whorl. 
The three ftyles Hand apart. It flowers in July and Au- 
guft (to Oclober), but has not perfected feeds in England. 
It is very different from Plunder's M. latifolia, folio fub- 
tus fpinofo, (which Linnaeus gives as a fynonym of his 
urens ;) the leaves of this being more than twice as big, 
and armed on both fides with flinging briftles ; whereas 
that has them only on the under lide. Plunder's plant 
alfo rifes with a much taller ftem, and feldom flowers 
here. The feeds of this plant were lent to Mr. Miller 
(about 1753) by Monf. Richard, gardener to the king 
of France at Trianon, by the name of boij de capitaine. 
It is called in the Englifh Weft-India iflands cawhage 
cherry. 
3 1 Mr. 
