M A R 
when the liquor boiled. Tfijs circumftance induced me 
to think that, at the temperature at which margarine may 
be united with potaffi, the carbonic acid which is feparated 
.from it may adt upon a portion of fubcarbonate, and con¬ 
vert it into faturated carbonate, and that it is afterwards 
.the latter which fends out carbonic acid at the tempera¬ 
ture of boiling water. The combination of margarine 
formed in this operation gave me, after havingbeen wathed, 
margarine ioo, potafti 8 -88 ; it was therefore pearly mat¬ 
ter. The liquor from which it was feparated, filtered fe- 
veral times, prefented only fome particles of margarine, 
.although it contained a great excefs of alkaline carbonate. 
The ftrong affinity of margarine for pot-affi having 
made me think that this fubftance could redden turn- 
foie, I put three grammes into the aqueous extract of 
turnfole; when cold there was no action; but when 
heated the margarine became foft, without melting how¬ 
ever, and the blue colour became red. I decanted the 
cooled liquor, and boiled feveral times the folid matter 
which was feparated from it with new extraft of turn¬ 
fole. I filtered, and there remained upon the paper red 
clots and a blue femi-gelatinous matter, which became 
partly red u’hen dried ; each of thefe fubftances was dif- 
folved by boiling alcohol; the two folutions were red, 
and depofited upon cooling fmall cryftals ; thofe coming 
from the former yielded margarine too, pot-affi 7-5; thole 
of the latter, margarine 100, and pot-affi 8 45. As I 
made thefe experiments on very fmall quantities only, 
I cannot vouch for their perfeft accuracy; they are fu.ffi- 
cient at lead to eftabliffi that margarine takes up the pot- 
affi from the colouring principle of turnfole, and that it 
afts like the acids, 
“ We have ffiown (fays M. Chevreuil) that margarine 
pofieffes a part of the characters of the acids; for it neu¬ 
tralizes the alkalinity, and attracts the pot-affi with more 
force than the colouring principles do when employed as 
re-agents. But are thefe properties fufficient to entitle us 
to place it among the acids ?” This is a queftion which 
the author has left undecided. 
MARGARI'TA, or Pearl Island, an ifland in the 
Caribbean fea, near the coaft of Terra Firma, difeovered 
by Columbus about the year 14.98. It now forms one of 
provinces belonging to the royal audience of Caraccas, 
eftabliffied in 1786; the other provinces being Venezuela, 
Maracaibo, Curaana, Varinas, and Guiana. The ifland 
pofTefles but few attractions; the foil is poor, and pro- 
'duces only cotton ; it lias, however, a fmall garrifon. On 
,the firft difeovery of Terra Firma, a pearl-fifhery, which 
was the principal fource of the riches of the country, and 
of the revenues of the king, was carried on at the expenfe 
of the lives of a great number of Spaniards and Indians; 
but this trade is now no more. The ifland is, perhaps, 
defirable as a military and commercial ftation ; becaufe, 
as it is feparated from Terra Firma by a diftance of only 
eight leagues, and to windward of all her provinces, it 
might become, under a fyftem of free commerce, the ge- 
xal entrepot of Cumana, Barcelona, Caraccas, Guayra, 
and all the cities of the interior. This ifland alfo ferves 
to form the channel that feparates it from Terra Firma, 
Jometimes called the “Straits of Margarita.” This chan¬ 
nel is not navigable for the whole eight leagues of its 
width. The ifland of Coche, fituated in the middle, 
leaves the navigator a very narrow paflage two leagues 
from Margarita, through which he mult indifpenfibly 
pafs. Eyery veflel coming from the windward, or from Eu¬ 
rope to Cumana, to Barcelona, and even to Guayra, is 
obliged to run down the fouth fide of Margarita. If 
this ifland were in the power of the enemies of Spain, all 
the commerce with Europe, all intercourfe with the neigh¬ 
bouring iflands, would be fo much the more eafily inter¬ 
cepted, as thofe which endeavoured to avoid the channel 
would be taken by privateers, when Margarita would 
ferve as an arfenal. Befides, an enterpriling enemy would 
.find in the fituation of Margarita means of eafily direft- 
ing expeditions againft any part of Terra Firma which he 
VOL. XIV. No. 980. 
M A R S37 
might wiffi to invade. There are hut three ports: the 
firft and principal is Pampatar , to the eaff-fouth-eaft ; the 
fecond, called Pueblo cle la Mar, is one league leeward of 
the preceding; and the third is on the north fide, and 
therefore called Pueblo del None. The capital city is 
called Aflumption, built almofi in the centre of the 
ifland. The whole population of the ifland is i4.,ooo 
perfons, confiding of 5500 whites, 7.000 Indians, and 
6500 Haves and freed perfons. They fabricate at Mar¬ 
garita thofe hammocks of cotton, whofe web is fo much 
fuperior to the hammocks manufactured in any other 
place. They alfo make very fine cotton dockings, which 
are fold at a dear rate. This ifland produces fo many 
parrots and curious birds, that no veflel leaves the ports 
of Margarita without having a fmall cargo of them on¬ 
board. Lat. ii. 7. N. Ion. 63. 22. W. 
MARGARITA'RIA,yi [from margarita, Lat. a pearl; 
the kernels of the berries being of a fliining white, like 
pearls.] In botany, a genus of the clafs dioecia, order oc- 
tandria.—Generic characters. Male. Calyx : perianthium 
one-leafed, four-toothed, minute, permanent. Corolla; 
petals four, roundiffi, inferred into the calyx. Stamina : 
filaments eight, briftle-ffiaped, patulous, longer, inferted 
into the receptacle; antheras roundiffi, fmall. Piftillum: 
germ fuperior, roundifh ; Ityle briftle-fliaped ; the length 
of the Itamens ; fiigma blunt. Female, on a diftinCt indi¬ 
vidual. Calyx and corolla: as in the male. Piftillum: 
germ fuperior, globular; ltyles four or five, filiform ; (tig- 
mas fimple, permanent. Pericarpium: berry globular, 
crowned with fiiort patulous ftyles. Seed : aril four or 
five ; grained, four or five-celled, cartilaginous, very fliin¬ 
ing ; with two-valved lobes. Seeds ovate, compreifed in¬ 
wards.-— EJJential Character. Male. Calyx four-toothed ; 
corolla four-petalled. Female: calyx and corolla as in 
the male; ftyles four or five; berry cartilaginous, four 
or five grained. 
Margaritaria nobilis, the only fpecies known. In the 
male the branches are round, brachiate, flexuofe; leaves 
oppofite, petioled, ovate, even, quite entire, of a firmer 
confiltence, the fize of thofe of Buonymus. Panicle of 
compound racemes, with great abundance of fmall flowers, 
as in Spiraea aruncus ; germ blunt, minute, abortive, with 
a fimple ftyle. In the female the branches are alternate; 
leaves always alternate. Peduncles axillary, fimple, al¬ 
ways one-flowered. Calyx always flat, four-cleft. Styles 
four or five, fpreading above the germ, permanent. Berry 
globular, but the nucleus four or five grained, ffiining re¬ 
markably, and the colour of pearls. Perhaps thefe may 
be of different genera. Found in Surinam by Dalberg. 
MAR'GARITE, f. [margarita, Lat. marguerite, Fr.] 
A pearl.-—Silver is the iecond metal, and fignifies purity; 
among the planets it holdeth with Luna, among precious 
Hones with the margarite or pearl. Peacham on Blazoning. 
MARGARITI'MA, a town of European Turkey, in 
Albania: thirty-four miles weft: of Arta. 
MARGARITI'NI,yi Glafs omaments,made at Venice, 
of fmall glafs tubes of different colours, which are blown 
at Murano, and which the women of the lower clafs wear 
about their arms and necks. The largeff fort are uftd for 
making rotaries. This work (as delcribed in Keyfler’s 
Travels, vol. iii.) is performed with great difpatch, the 
artifan taking a whole handful of thefe tubes at once, and 
breaking them off one after another with an iron tool. 
Thefe ffiort cylinders are mixed with a kind of affies, and 
put over the fire in an iron pan ; and, when the two ends 
begin to melt, by Itirring them about with an iron wire 
they are brought to a round figure; but care is taken not 
to leave them too long over the fire, left the hole through 
which they are to be Itrung fliould be entirely doled by 
the melting of the glafs. There are feveral ftreets at Fran- 
cefco de Vigna entirely inhabited by people whofe foie 
occupation is to make and ftring thefe margaritini, 
MAR'GATE, a market-town in the jurifdidion of 
the liberties of Dover, and county of Kent, England, is 
fituated on the fea-coaft, at the northern extremity of the 
4 Y ii ie 
