452 
M Y R 
twice the length of the calyx; tube of the (tame ns thrice 
as long as the calyx, curved, white, (lender; anther® 
about nine, yellow', accompanied by four or five green 
glandular bodies, many more of which are difperfed a 
little w'ay dowm the tube. Stigma prominent, divided. 
Fruit dry, green, coriaceous, an inch and half long, with 
two feeds. Aublet fays nothing of the fcent, which 
Swartz defcribes, and is knowm to exift in this as well as 
the former. The want of a lid to the calyx, if con- 
ftant, is a remarkable difference betw'een this fpecies and 
the other. 
MY'RON, a celebrated ftatuary of Greece, peculiarly 
happy in imitating nature. He made a cow’ fo much re- 
fembling life, that even bulls were deceived and ap¬ 
proached her as if alive, as is frequently mentioned by 
many epigrams in the Anthologia. He flourifhed about 
4.4.2 years before Chrift. 
MYROP'OLIS, in ancient geography, a town of Greece, 
near the Straits of Thermopylae, over-againft Heraclea. 
MYROP'OLIST, /. [from the Gr. y.vpov, ointment, and 
wioXia, to fell.] One who fells unguents. 
MYROS'MA, f. [from the Gr. pvpoy, balfam, and ocrp///>, 
a fcent, alluding to a property of the plant, rather fup- 
pofed perhaps from its natural affinities, than perceptible 
in the dried fpecimen, or difcoverable in any thing we 
can find of its hiftory. Linnaeus at firft w'rote it Myrifma, 
i. e. anointed with balfam.] In botany, a genus of the clafs 
monandria, order monogynia, natural order fcitamineae, 
Linn, (cannae, Jnff.) Generic Charaders—Calyx: peri- 
anthium fuperior double; outer three-leaved; leaflets 
equal, membranaceous, oblong, channelled, quite entire: 
inner three-parted ; fegments equal, fpreading, oblong, 
quite entire, with a dufky fpot at the top. Corolla : one- 
petalled, unequal: tube very fhort; border five-parted; 
the two upper fegments fhorter, oblong, unequally emar- 
ginate; the three lower longer, trifid at the top and 
gaflied; the middle one fhorter. Stamina: filament one, 
free or growing to the margin of the middle divifion of 
the lower fegment of the corolla, membranaceous at the 
bale, awl-fliaped ; anther® ovate, comprefied. Piftillum : 
germen three-fided, inferior; ftyle thick, bent down, 
fhort, three-cornered, cloven longitudinally, hirfute be¬ 
fore ; ftigma open, with the lip dilated. Pericarpium : 
capfule three-celled, three-valved, three-cornered. Seeds : 
leveral, angular.— Effcntinl Chara&cr. Calyx double; 
outer three-leaved, inner three-parted ; corolla five-part¬ 
ed, irregular; eapfule three-cornered, three-celled, many- 
feeded. 
Myrofma cannasformis, a folitary fpecies. It is a fhrub 
growing like the Canna, or Indian reed. Root horizontal, 
afcending obliquely at top, flefhy, ovate, fhort, (lightly 
comprefied as in Amomum; girt with rings, covered 
with alternate, embracing, ovate, apprefled, broad, fibrous 
(heaths. Leaves oval, Tmooth, veined; the lower one 
with-elongated dilated radicate petioles, forming theftem; 
the upper ones with petioles out of the Item. The petioles 
thus elongated become (lender, comprefied, channelled 
longitudinally, but towards the infertion of the leaf they 
are elevated into a cylindrical ring, hairy in front/curv¬ 
ing the leaf inwards a little. Stems or fcapes round, 
fomewhat hairy, ending in a joint,whence fprings a leaf 
very like the (tem-leaves, and a peduncle involved in the 
(heath of the petiole. Peduncle folitary, fcarcely longer 
than the petiole, round. Raceme like the ament of a hop, 
imbricate with the alternate fcales of the brades. Brades 
two-leaved, two-flowered : outer leaf wider, ovate, mem¬ 
branaceous, embracing; inner (horter, narrower, oblong. 
This genus is allied to Pontederia ovata, but it differs in 
the fruit. Gathered by Dahlberg in Surinam ; and was 
one of the plants which made a part of the Surinam Col- 
ledion, preferved in fpirits, prefented to Linnaeus by king 
Guffavus III. Nothing is recorded of the properties or 
ufes of the Myrofma. 
MYROSPER'MUM (of Jacquin). See Myroxylum. 
MYROX'YLON (of Forfter). See Xylosoma. 
M Y R 
MYROX'YLUM, f. [from the Gr. f/.vpov, balfam, and 
| vt.ov , wood.] Balsam of Peru ; in botany, a genus of the 
clafs decandria, order monogynia, natural order of lomen- 
tace®, (leguminof®, Generic Charaders—Calyx: 
perianthium one-leafed, bell-(haped, five-toothed, per¬ 
manent, with very fmall obfolete teeth. Corolla: petals 
five, unequal, inferted into the receptacle ; the uppermoft 
wide, ovate, obcordate, reflex ; the reft narrow-lanceolate, 
ftraight, fcarcely fpreading: claws narrow, linear, the 
length of the calyx. Stamina : filaments ten, filiform, 
frnooth, preffed to the germ, the length of the calyx ; 
anther® ered, lanceolate, grooved, terminating in a fliort 
point. Piftillum : germen fuperior, longer than the 
flower, hanging down from it, labre-fhaped, comprefied; 
ftyle afcending, (hort; filiform ; ftigma blunt, Ample. 
Pericarpium : legume fw'ord-fhaped, narrowed at the bafe, 
widening towards the top, ancipital, not opening. Seed: 
Angle, round, comprefied, in the top of the legume.— 
Ejj'mtial Charatter. Calyx bell-fhaped ; petals five, the 
uppermoft larger; germen longer than the corolla; legume 
one-feeded. There are three fpecies. 
1. Myroxylum Peruiferum, or balfam-tree of Peru: 
leaflets pointed, emarginate. Claw of the larger petal 
twice the length of the calyx. Native of the warmed 
parts of Mexico and Peru, in mountainous lituations. 
Hernaudez fays the Mexican kings cultivated it in their 
gardens; and that, if the trunk or bark be wounded, at 
any time of the year, but efpecially at the end of the 
rainy feafon, the celebrated and valuable balfam of Peru 
diftils from the wound : “ This is of a dark or blackilh. 
orange colour, of an acrid and fomewhat bitter tafte, with 
a moft-powerful but highly-agreeable fmell.” Linn®us 
was always, as his fon records, peculiarly anxious to af- 
certain the plant which yields this precious balfam; but 
he never had the fatisfadion of knowing it. After his 
death, Mutis (ent fpecimens of the leaf, flowers, and 
fruit, to the younger Linnsus, and from which the de- 
feription in fhe Supplementum was made. The tree is 
faid by Hernandez to be the fize of a lemon-tree. Leaves 
alternately pinnate, with a terminal leaflet; the leaflets 
are near an inch and a half long, ovate-oblong, with a 
broadiflr elongated obtufe emarginate point; their margin 
entire, though fomewhat crumpled or wavy; both (ides 
fmooth and rather (hining, bright green, with one rib, 
and many fine reticulated veins. When held againft the 
light, they appear full of fingularly-elegant pellucid (pots, 
mod of them fmall and roundifti, but fome linear, larger 
than the reft. Flowers numerous, in a long downy Ample 
duller, or (lender fcattered (talks, fcarcely an inch long, 
with a minute concave brade at the bafe of each ; calyx 
hoary with fine loft down; petals and ftamens whitifti; 
germen fmooth, green, hanging out of the flower in a re¬ 
markable manner; legume a foot long, and about an 
inch broad, thick-edged, with a (hort oblique point. 
Mutis fays in his letter, that the frudification of this 
plant is nearly the fame as that which yields the balfam 
of Tolu. 
2. Myroxylum pedicellatum, or long-ftalked balfam- 
tree : leaflets elliptical, abrupt, emarginate; claw of the 
larger petal the length of the calyx ; llalk of the legume 
longer. Gathered by Jofeph de Juflieu in Peru. La- 
marcks’s figure and defeription were made from the 
drawing and fpecimens the former brought from thence, 
nor have we any other materials than w'hat Lamarck’s 
works afford; but thefe abundantly fuffice to diftinguifti 
the fpecies. This is a large tree, called in its native 
country quina-quina, like the Peruvian bark, and vul¬ 
garly Jimmerio. The trunk is faid to be tw'o feet thick, 
with an afh-coloured bark; the wood very hard, ufed for 
building, as well as for conftruding fugar-mills ; whitilh, 
with a red or blackifh heart. Leaves alternate, of from 
feven to fifteen alternate (talked leaflets, with an odd 
one, all of equal fize, elliptical, obtufe, emarginate, entire, 
near an inch and half long, full of pellucid dots or lines. 
Inflorefcence much like the former. Flowers fimilar, 
except 
