340 
MAR 
MAR 
Marcgrai'ia umbellata, a fingle fpecies. It is a fhmbby 
creeping plant, but not properly parafitical; at firft it is 
radicant, like Tome ferns, whence Sloane has given a figure 
of the young plant among his ferns. As it advances, the 
Item becomes fhrubby, adhering ftill by its fibres to the 
trunk of fome tree, to the top of which it frequently runs, 
at length dividing into feveral fubdivided lool'e pendulous 
branches, commonly terminated by flowering umbels. 
The leaves of a young rooting plant are roundifh, fnb- 
fefiile, flightly emarginate, with an entire margin, and 
glandular dots. Leaves of the branches diftich, alternate, 
on fliort petioles, ovate, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, of 
a thick confidence, deciduous, fmooth. Umbels nodding, 
with many fnnple one-flowered peduncles; in the cen¬ 
tre of the umbel, utricular glands, fpreading, oblong, ven- 
tricofe, helmet-fhaped, deciduous, coriaceous. Flowers 
attending, naked. Receptacle, after the flower is fallen, 
entire, not five-lobed. Capfule ufually divided into ten 
cells. Seeds'and pulp of a fhining fcarlet colour. Na¬ 
tive of the Weft Indies, in the cool woody mountains. 
Browne fays it is frequent in the woods of Jamaica, and 
appears in fuch various forms that it has been miftaken 
for different plants in the different ftages of its growth. 
The fruit is the fize of a moderate goofeberry, with a 
thick rind ; and we prefume, from the natural affinities of 
this plant, that it is of a poifonous quality. The greateft 
peculiarity of this plant confifts in four, five, or more, 
appendages to the umbel, placed in the centre, each on a 
Italic half the length of the flower-ftalks. Thefe are above 
an inch long, tubular, obtufe, and clofed at the extremity, 
but furnifhed with a dilated lip at their orifice where the 
ltalk is inferted. Being, from the pofition of the umbel, 
pendulous, Brown fays they catch the water that trickles 
down the branch in rainy weather; but their ufe has not 
been fully explained. Linnaeus fuppofed them nedaries. 
If fuch, they may ferve to tempt infects or humming¬ 
birds to frequent the flowers, and afiift impregnation, as 
in numberlefs other cafes. 
Willdenow has adopted another fpecies, M. coriacea, 
from Vahl’s Eclogae. It has the habit of the preceding; 
but with more elliptical, obtufe, coriaceous, fhining, and 
almoft-veinlefs, leaves. The umbel, like all the other 
parts, is much larger. The fuppofed nectaries, or pouches, 
grow', without any ftalks, on the lower part of each flower- 
italk, and are fhorter and more inflated than thofe of the 
former. This plant has certainly all the habit of the ge¬ 
nus in queftion ; but neither Vahl nor Willdenow feems 
to have known any thing of the corolla, which is totally 
different, confifting of five feparate concave petals; fo 
that it proves to belong to Schreber’s genus Afcium, the 
Norantea of Aublet: which differs in that refpeCl: only 
from Marcgravia, having exactly the fame fort of pouches, 
though they have been called braCtes, becaufe the inflo- 
refcence in Aublet’s plant is racemofe. See Ascium, 
vol. ii. 
MARCH, [from Mars .] The third month of the year. 
—March is drawn in tawny, with a fierce afpeft, a helmet 
upon his head, to fhow this month was dedicated to Mars. 
Peacham. 
Among the Romans, March was the firft month; for, 
when Romulus divided the year into months, he gave to 
the firft the name of his fuppofed father, Mars. Ovid, 
however, obferves, that the people of Italy had the month 
of March before Romulus’s time; but that they placed it 
very differently, fome making it the third, lome the fourth, 
fome the fifth, and others the tenth, month of the year. 
In this month it was that the Romans facrificed to Anna 
Perenna; that they began their comitia ; that they ad¬ 
judged their public farms and leafes; that the miftreffes 
ferved the Haves and fervants at table, as the malters did 
in the Saturnalia; and that the veftals renewed the facred 
fire. The month of March was always under the protec¬ 
tion of Minerva, and always confided of thirty-one days. 
The ancients held it an unhappy month for marriage, as 
well as the month of May. 
In England, before the alteration of the ftyle, March, 
properly (peaking, was the firft month in order, the new 
year commencing from the 25th ; though, in complaifance 
to the cultoms of our neighbours, we ufually ranked it as 
the third ; but, in this refpeCl, we fpoke one way, and 
wrote another. See the article Chronology, vol. iv. 
p. 535. Till the year 1564., the French reckoned the be¬ 
ginning of their year from Eafter ; fo that there were two 
months of March in one year, one of which they called 
March before Safer, and the other March after Eafcr ; and, 
when Eafter fell within the month of March, the begin¬ 
ning of the month was in one year, and the end in another. 
We have two remarkable days to notice irf this month. 
1. St. David's. David is the tutelary faint of Wales, 
and firlt biffiop of the fee of St. David’s, in Pembroke- 
fliire. The hiltory of this prelate is involved in great ob= 
fcurity, and very much intermixed with monkifh legends, 
in which we can repofe no confidence. He is ftated to 
have been of princely extraction ; and to have been the 
fon, as fome fay, and according to others the grandfon, of 
Sandde ab Cedig ab Ceredig ab Cunedda, a prince of Ce¬ 
redigion, or Cardigan, by Non, the daughter of Gynyr of 
Caer Gawch, in Pembrokefliire. Some fay the lady’s 
name was Melaria, and that (he was one of the daughters 
of Brychan, a prince or regulus of Brecknockihire, from 
whom that county derived its name, and whofe reign is 
dated from A. D. 400 to 450. However this be, all au¬ 
thors agree, that (he was a nun, and that lhe became a 
mother by the forcible violation of her chaftity. The 
year of his birth is not pofitively afcertained ; Creffy places 
it in the year 462; the author of his life, in a differta- 
tion on the fubjeCt contained in the ACta SanCtorum, 
fixes it in the year 445; but others affign a later date. 
Having commenced his education and courfe of literary 
fame at old Menapia, and determining to devote himfelf 
to a religious life, he removed to the I(le of Wight, in or¬ 
der to avail himfelf of the inftruCtion of Paulinus, who 
fuperint<=nded a public fchool for theadmiffion of perfons 
defigned for the clerical office. After profecuting his ftu- 
dies for fome years in this place with great ardour and 
fuccefs, he returned to his native country, and fixed his 
refidence in a retired fituation, called Vallis Rofina, the 
Valley of Rofes, where he founded a monaltic inltitution, 
which acquired, from the drift difcipline with which it 
was conduced, and the diltinguiffied l’anClity of its mem¬ 
bers, a celebrity that rendered it in procefs of time an ar- 
chiepifcopal metropolis. Of this inltitution we have in 
the ACta SanCtorum the following defcription. The mem¬ 
bers of it, who laboured daily for the benefit of the mo- 
naftery, “ never converfed together by talking but when 
neceffity required ; and, each performed the labour af- 
figned him, accompanied with prayers or holy meditations 
on divine things; and, having finiffied their country work, 
they returned to their monaftery, where they fpent the 
remainder of the day till the evening in reading or writ¬ 
ing. In the evening, at the founding of a bell, they all 
left their employment, and repaired to the church, where 
they continued till the (lars appeared, and then they went 
to their refeftion, eating fparingly, and not to fatiety. 
Their food was bread, with roots or herbs (eafoned with 
lalt, and they quenched their third with a mixture of wa¬ 
ter and milk. Supper being ended, they continued about 
three hours iu watchings, prayers, and genuflexions. As 
long as they were in the church, none were allowed to 
(lumber, lneeze, or fpit. After this they went to reft; 
at cock-crowing they arofe, and remained at prayer till 
day appeared. All their inward fenfations and thoughts 
were difcloled to their fuperior, and from him they de¬ 
manded permiffion in all things, even when urged by the 
neceffary calls of nature.” Their clothing conlifted of 
the (kins of beads. 
The time of St. David’s death, and his age at his de- 
ceafe, are no lefs uncertain than the period of his birth. 
Giraldus and John of Tinemouth, (fate that he died in 
the year 609, at the advanced age of J47. years. Pits 
3 places 
