M Y O 
M Y O 
thickened at the top, axillary, folitary; leaves lanceolate, 
hairy. Very common on the banks of the YVolga, flow¬ 
ering in April and May. Stem three inches long, ereft, 
dichotomous, flightly branched. 
11. Myofotis 'peftinata, or Kamtfchatka fcorpion- 
grafs : feeds briftly at the top ; clufters ereft; leaves 
ovate-lanceolate, villous. Native of molly rocks in the 
coldeft parts of Siberia, and in Kamtfchatka. It flowers 
at ICew in June and July. This fpecies, in its mode of 
growth, is very like M. rupeftris. Root perennial, loofely 
1 'preading. Stems {lender, fomewhat hairy. Leaves al¬ 
ternate, fefllle, ovate-lanceolate, covered with long foft 
hairs. Corolla fm’all, blue, with a pale throat. Seeds 
crowned with briftles, fomewhat like the feed-down of 
fyngenefious plants. 
12. Myofotis Auftralis, or New-Holland fcorpion- 
grafs : hifpid j leaves oblong-lanceolate calyx as long 
as the tube, clothed with fpreading hooked briftles. 
Gathered by Mr. Brown at Port Jackfon, and in Van 
Diemen’s Land. This plant is eighteen inches' or more 
in height, clothed with little rigid briftles, of which thole 
on the ftem aredeflexed. Flowers numerous, final], blue, 
in terminal aggregate clulfers, whofe ftalks are clothed 
with attending briftles. 
Mr. Brown efteems this genus as differing from An- 
chufa merely in the want of braCtes. He would there¬ 
fore refer to the latter M. fpatulata of Forfter, and M. 
rupeftris of Pallas. He conceives that the Linnasan fpe¬ 
cies, which have an echinated fruit, ought to conftitute 
a diftinft genus, very n'ear to Cynogloflum, on account 
of the prickly cuts or feeds attached to the central column, 
comprefled not deprefled, and the clufters furnilhed with 
braCtes. The efiential character of the genus Myofotis is 
given by this ingenious author as follows : Calyx deepiy 
five-cleft. Corolla falver-lhaped ; throat clofed with con¬ 
cave valves; limb in five, deep, obtule, fegments. Sta¬ 
mens included with peltate antherse. Stigma capitate. 
Nuts four, diftinCt, umbilicated at the bale. Clufters 
Ample, without braCtes. 
Propagation and Culture. Sow the feeds in autumn, 
upon an open bed or border of light earth. In the fpring 
thin the plants where they are too clofe, and keep them 
clean. Or if the feeds be permitted to fcatter, the plants 
will rife without farther trouble. See Cerastium and 
Stellaria. 
MYOSU'RUS, f. [from poo; ov^a, the tail of a moufe, 
a very excellent and expreflive name bellowed by Dille- 
nius on this plant, from the circumftance of its fpiked re¬ 
ceptacle, fcaly with feeds, refembling a moufe’s tail.] 
Mouse-tail ; in botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, 
order polygynia, natural order of ' multifiliquae (ranun- 
culaceae, Jiljf.) Generic Characters—Calyx : perianthium 
five-leaved ; leaflets half-lanceolate, obtufe, reflex, an¬ 
nexed above the bafe, coloured, deciduous. Corolla : 
petals five, Ihorter than the calyx, very minute, tubular 
at the bafe, opening obliquely inwards ; (with a nectari¬ 
ferous pore at the claws. Gartner.) Stamina : filaments 
five, the length of the calyx ; antherse oblong, ereCt. 
Piftillum : germens numerous, placed on the receptacle 
in aconic-oblorigform ; ftyles none; ftigmas fimple. Pe- 
ricarpium : none; receptacle very long, ftyle-lhaped, co¬ 
vered with the feeds difpofed imbricately. Seeds : very 
numerous, oblong, acuminate. The number of ftamens 
in this genus is extremely variable. There is alfo a great 
affinity between it and Ranunculus, (in which genus it 
was arranged by Tournefort,) efpecially between the nec¬ 
tariferous claw of the petals in that genus, and the tubular 
claw of Myofurus. Linnaeus and other authors have 
coniidered thefe parts of the flower as ne&iiries; but we 
are rather inclined to regard them as petals, as they were 
originally deferibed.-— Effential Cliura&er. Calyx of five 
leaves, each with a ipur at the bafe ; petals five, with a 
tubular honey-bearing claw ; feeds numerous, naked. 
Myofurus minimus, the only fpecies. Root annual, 
fibrous, 1 'mall. Leaves all radical, about twenty in a 
409 
plant of a middling fize, upright, of unequal lengths, 
linear, broadeft at top, flattened, faintly channelled on 
each fide, fmooth, fomewhat flelliy, blunt, of a yellowilh 
green colour, and reddilh at the bafe ; fometimes hairy, 
according to Hudfon. Scapes or flowering-rtems four, 
five, or more, each fupporting one flower, upright, from 
two to four inches in height, longer than the leaves, 
round, fmooth, a little thicker at the top; petals of a 
yellowilh colour. Stamens varying in number from four 
or five to ten, twelve, or even twenty, according to differ¬ 
ent authors. Seeds comprefled, wedge-fnaped ; the outer 
lide ferruginous, linear-lanceolate, with a ridge along the 
middle ; the other fides half-ovate, flat, blackilh, con¬ 
verging into a very acute angle. 
Mr: Curtis remarks, that the ftruCture of the whole 
fructification, in this delicate little annual plant, is An¬ 
gular, and deferving the attention of the young botanift, 
who Ihould be careful to diftinguilh the corolla from the 
ftamens. It grows wild in molt parts of Europe : Linnaeus 
fays on dry open hills ; with us, by the fides of corn-fields, 
efpecially where water has ftagnated in winter, and fome¬ 
times coming up as a weed in a garden. Dr. Withering 
affigns it to corn-fields, meadows, and paltures, in a 
gravelly foil. Mr. Miller fays it grows wild upon moift 
ground : it occurred to his editor, Mr. Martyn, generally 
among clay. In Curtis’s Englilh Botany, it is laid to be 
a native of gravelly corn-fields. That elegant and in- 
terefting work deferibes the piftil to be conical, longer 
than the ftamens, compofed of a conical receptacle, co¬ 
vered with a great number (even two or three hundred) 
of ovate-ftriated germens, each furnilhed with its own 
minute feflile ftigma. This plant affords a rare inftance 
of a very great difproportion of males to females in the 
fame flower, and yet the latter are generally all prolific. 
The feeds are juftly deferibed by Linnaeus as naked ; for 
the part which Jufiieu (and Gartner) call a capfule, is 
nothing more than a thickened infeparable coat, as in 
Ranunculus, to which Myofurus has a great affinity in 
its nectariferous pore. 
Profeffor Martyn mentions a fpecimen of this plant, 
which grew in a good foil, and had above fifty flower- 
ftalks of different lengths, from three to feven inches, 
and leaves about three inches and a half in length, but 
there was no trace of hairinefs on them. This plant 
flowered in April and May, but had not Hied its feeds to¬ 
wards the middle of June. 
MYOT'OMY, /. [from the Gr. f<vo, a mufcle, andro^, 
a feCt-ion.] A diffeCtion of the mufcles. This name has 
been given to fome anatomical works on the mufcles : as, 
Cowper’s Myotomia reformata. 
MYOX'US, f. the Dormouse ; in zoology, a genus of 
quadrupeds of the order glires. Generic Characters— 
Front-teeth two, the upper ones wedged, the lower ones 
comprefled ftdeways; whilkers long; tail hairy, round, 
thick towards the tip ; the feet nearly equal in length ; 
the fore-feet have four toes. The animals of this genus 
all remain torpid during winter ; they walk, or rather 
leap, on their hind-legs, bounding three or four feet at a 
time, in which they are afilfted by a long ftifir’ tail; they 
feed only on vegetables, burrow under ground ; lleep by 
day, watch by night, carry food to the mouth by the fore¬ 
paws, and drink by dipping the fore-palms in water. 
There are fix fpecies. 
i. Myoxus glis, the fat dormoufe : body hoary, beneath 
whitilh. This fpecies, the glis of Pliny and the old na- 
turalifts, is a native of France and the fouth of Europe: 
it alfo occurs in Ruffia, Auftria, &c. refiding on trees, and 
leaping from bough to bough in the manner of a fquirrel, 
though with a left degree of agility. It feeds on nuts, 
acorns, fruits, Sec. and during great part of the winter 
remains torpid in its neft, which is prepared in the hol¬ 
lows of trees, with dried leaves, mofs, &c. During its 
ftate of torpidity, it is faid to grow very fat, contrary to 
the nature of moft of the hybernating or lleeping ani¬ 
mals ; which are obferved, on their firft emerging from 
that 
