51.5 
M A S 
Mug William, to our days, come into general cultivation 
in England. The writer of this well recollects the plea- 
fiire which the novel light of an African geranium, in 
Yorkfhire and Norfolk, gave him about forty years ago. 
Now every garret and cottage window is filled with nu¬ 
merous fpecies of that beautiful tribe ; and every green- 
houfe glows with the innumerable bulbous plants and 
fplendid heaths of the Cape. For all thefe we are princi¬ 
pally indebted to Mr. Maflon, befides a multitude of rari¬ 
ties, more difficult of prefervation or propagation, con¬ 
fined to the more curious collections. Many of thefe per¬ 
haps have only furvived to bloom once or twice within 
the walls to which they were firlt configned ; to be defined 
and named by the fkill of a Solander, a Dryander, or of 
the younger Einnasus,in his tranfient vifit among us; and 
have then dilappeared. Such deficiencies and difappoint- 
ments indeed were fcarcely felt while Mr. Maflon continued 
at the Cape, fo abundant and repeated were his fupplies. 
The Dutch appear not to have reftrained his inquiries or 
acquifitions: he was allowed to travel many hundred 
miles up the country. At length, his harveft having been 
judged, for the prefent, fufficiently abundant, he was, in 
1776, ordered to explore the Canary Iflands, the Azores, 
Madeira, and part of the Weft Indies, efpecially the illand 
of'St. Chriltopher. In this million he employed about 
five years more ; and returned to England in 1781. 
During his ftay at the Cape, he entered into correfpond- 
ence with the great Linnaeus. Having difcovered a bul¬ 
bous plant of a new'genus, he was not only laudably am¬ 
bitious of botanical commemoration in its name, but he 
was particularly anxious, as appears by one of his letters, 
to receive this honour from no lefs a hand than that of 
his illuftrious and venerable correfpondent. This indeed 
was the only reward to which he afpired for all his la¬ 
bours. That he fought no pecuniary advancement, the 
extreme flendernefs of the ftipend which could be obtained 
for him, and his difregard of fuch objects at all times, 
abundantly evinced. He obtained the honour to which 
he afpired. The fpecimen of Majfonia, in the herbarium 
of Linnaeus, named by his own trembling hand near the 
clofe of his life, proves that the name had his fanCtion, 
though it appears from the Supplementum Plantarum, 
p. Z7, to have been originally fuggefted by Thunberg, in 
whofe company Maflon botanized for two years at the 
Cape. This juftice rendered to the merits of onr botani¬ 
cal traveller, was finally crowned by the publication of 
plates of two fpecies of Maflonia, in the Hortus Kewenfis 
of his friend Aiton, a book which he had fo eminently 
contributed to enrich, by his difcoveries in various parts 
of the world. Before that book appeared, however, in 
1789, he had, in 1783, vifited Portugal and Madeira, and 
had returned to the Cape of Good Hope in 1786. He 
now combined experience and forefight with zeal and ac¬ 
tivity. He was prepared to take advantage of different 
feafons; in fome to colleCt fpecimens, in others roots or 
feeds; fo as belt to make up for former deficiencies or 
Ioffes; and he had already made himfelf acquainted with 
the various fituations, or traCts of country, molt promif- 
ing for every purpole. In confequence of this know¬ 
ledge, it was fettled, in confutation with his able advifer, 
fir Jofeph Banks, that his travels fliould now be reftrained 
to within forty miles of the Cape Town. That fpace of 
country was found to be as yet inexhaufted, and almoft 
perhaps inexhaullible, as to what it might afford for our 
gardens ; and the expenfe as well as labour of the under¬ 
taking was, by this plan, greatly leflened. 
Mr. Malidn returned to England again in 1795, and 
fpent two years there among his botanical friends, feeing 
the produce of his exertions every day blooming around 
him, at Kew and at Hammerfmith, his refidence at Ken- 
fington placing him within reach of the principal bota¬ 
nic gardens, as well as at a moderate diltance from the 
great theatre of fcientific and literary information in 
Soho-fquare, 
M A S 
A life of fo much leifure foon became irkfome to a man 
who had been ufed to fo much bodily exertion and men¬ 
tal recreation, amid the wild and novel fcene^ of nature; 
and he folicited another million. This was obtained from 
his royal mafter, at the recommendation of bis former 
friend and patron ; and he was fent to explore fuch parts 
of North America^ under the Britifti government, as ap¬ 
peared molt likely to produce new and valuable plants. 
This was truly a national project, worthy of thofe who 
planned it; the vegetable productions of that country, 
from the hardinefs of their conftitution, being not merely 
objects of curiofity, tafte, or luxury, but capable of being 
naturalized among us, for the probable benefit of our arts, 
our domeftic and rural economy, our kitchen-gardens and 
farms, as well as of our fhrubberies and parterres. The 
fuccefs of our traveller was equal to the expectations that 
had been formed. New plants, of interetting characters 
and properties, fprung up under his (teps; and it feemed 
probable that much practical knowledge was likely to re¬ 
sult from his difcoveries, even through the experience and 
converfe of the wild inhabitants of thofe little explored 
regions. So others have found who have followed Mr. 
Maflon ; for he furvived not to reap or to communicate 
more than a foretalte of thefe advantages. He died about 
Chriftmas, 1805, in the fixty-fifth year of his age, at Mon¬ 
treal, in Canada. What little property he left fell into 
the hands of two of his nephews ; and confifted chiefly of 
the journals of his various travels, drawings, and collec¬ 
tions of dried plants or other natural productions. Some 
of thefe? relics have been purchafed by the prefent Mr. Lee 
of Hammerfmith, a worthy friend of their original pofieffor. 
Maflon was of a mild temper, perfevering in his purfuits, 
even to enthuliafm. Of great induflry; which his fpeci- 
mens and drawings of fill), animals, infeCts, plants, and 
views of the countries he palled through, evince. And 
though he parted a folitary life, in countries diftant from 
fociety, his love of natural hiltory never forfook him. 
Mr. Maflon publilhed, in 1796, a fplendid work on the 
genus Stapelia, confiding of a thin folio volume, with 
forty-one coloured plates of as many fpecies, almoft en¬ 
tirely nondefcript, accompanied by defcriptions. This 
volume is dedicated to the king, in the fame refpeClful 
and feeling flyle as the firft edition of Mr. Aiton’s Hortus 
Kewenfis; and we think we perceive traces of the fame 
able and judicious pen in both. New Cyclopedia. 
MASS'ON D.ES GRANGES (Daniel), a French prieft, 
concerning whofe perfonal hiltory we learn no further 
particulars, than that he was born in 1700, and died in 
176a. He is the author of a work, which is highly fpoken 
of, entitled “ The Modern Philofopher; or, the Unbeliever 
condemned at the Tribunal of Reafon,” printed in 17J9, 
nmo. and reprinted with conflderable additions in 1765. 
Though the fubjeCt of the author’s work has frequently 
employed the pens of able writers, yet he is faid to be 
entitled to no little praife, for having placed the argu¬ 
ments in fupport of religion in a new light, and drefling 
them in a familiar form, adapted to the capacity of plaits 
and common underftandings. Ncuv.Dift. Hijl. 
MASSONE', adj. in heraldry, reprelented in the man¬ 
ner of a Hone wall, 
MASSO'NIA, f. [fo named from Mr. Francis Majfor.y 
the botanift.] In botany, a genus of the clafs hexandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of coronarias, (afphodeli, 
JuJf.') Generic characters—Calyx: none. Corolla: pe¬ 
tals lix, lanceolate, fpreading, upright, placed externally 
on the neCtary; which is inferior* cylindrical, membra¬ 
naceous, fix-ftreaked, fix-toothed. Stamina: fix, filiform, 
incurved, a little longer than the petals, inferted into the 
teeth of the neCtary ; antherae ovate, upright, yellow. 
Piftillum: germ fuperior in relpect of the nectary; , liyle 
awl-fhaped, declining, the length of the flamens; Itigma 
fimple, acute. Pericarpium : capfule three-fid^d, thicken- 
ing above,obtufe,frnooth, three-celled, three-valved,open¬ 
ing longitudinally at the comers. Seeds; very many, angu- 
last- 
