M Y R 
45G 
courfe, and caufed his death. Pelops gained the viftory, 
and married Hippodamia: and, when Myrtilus claimed 
the reward promifed to his perfidy, Pelops threw him 
headlong into the lea, where he perilhed. The Body of 
Myrtilus, according to Tome, was carried by the waves 
to the fea-lhore, where he received an honourable burial, 
and, as he was the Ion of Mercury, he was made a conitel- 
lation. Hygin. fab. 84, 214. 
MYR'TIS,a Greek lady who diftinguiflied herfelf by her 
poetical talents. She flouriflied about 500 years B.C. and 
inftrubfed the celebrated Corinna in the feveral rules of 
verfification. Pindar himfelf was alfo one of her pupils; 
as to which, fee the article Music, p. 358. 
MYR'TITES, J\ The name of a compofition in the 
ancient pharmacy, made of fine honey and the depurated 
juice of myrtle-berries boiled up together to a confid¬ 
ence. 
MYR'TLE, f. [myrtus, Lat.] A fragrant tree facred to 
Venus. See Myrtus. —The flower of the myrtle confifts 
of feveral leaves dilpofed in a circular order, which ex¬ 
pand in form of a role ; upon the top of the foot-ftalk is 
the ovary, which has a fliort ftar-like cup, divided at the 
top into five parts, and expanded ; the ovary becomes an 
oblong umbilicated fruit, divided into three cells, which 
are full of kidney-lhaped feeds. Miller. — Democritus 
would have Concord like a fair virgin, holding in one 
hand a pomegranate, in the other a bundle of myrtle; 
for fucli is the nature of thefe trees, that, if they be 
planted a good fpace one from the other, they will meet, 
and, with twining, one embrace the other. Peacliam. 
There will I make thee beds of rofes. 
With a thoufand fragrant pofies ; 
A cap of flowers, and a girdle 
lmbroider’d all with leaves of myrtle. Marlow. 
Nor can the mufe the gallant Sidney pafs 
The plume of war! with early laurels crown’d, 
The lover’s myrtle and the poet’s bay. Thomfon. ' 
Dutch and Candleberry Myrtle. See Myrica, p. 441. 
Myrtle-leaved Sumach. See Coriaria. 
MYRTLE I'SLAND, one of the Chandeleur illands, 
in the gulf of Mexico. 
MYR'TO-CIS'TUS, f. in botany. See Hypericum. 
MYR'TO-GENIS'TA. See Sophora. 
MYRTOPDES. See Myrtus. 
MYR'TOS, in ancient geography, an ifland of the 
ALgean Sea, on the weftern fide of the mod foutherly 
point of the ifland Euboea. Pliny fays, that it gave name 
to that part of the Aegean Sea called Myrtoum Mare. 
MYRTO'UM MA'RE, a part of the ALgean Sea, 
which lies between Euboea, Attica, and Peloponnelus, as 
far as Cape Malea. It receives this name from Myrtis, a 
woman ; or from Myrtus, a lmall ifland oppofite to 
Caryftos in Euboea; or from Myrtilus, the fon of Mer¬ 
cury, who was drowned there. See thole articles. 
M YRTUN'TIUM, a name given to that part of the fea 
which lies on the coaft of Epirus, between the bay of 
Ambracia and Leucas. 
MYR'TUS, f. [of Pliny and other Latin authors ; 
p.fjiTo; of Ariflole and other good Greek authors ; enrn 
of Galen, Diofcorides, See. fabled to be fo named from 
Myrjine, an Athenian damfel, and favourite of Minerva, 
who was metamorphofed into this flirub.] Myrtle ; in 
botany, a genus of the clafs icofandria, order monogynia, 
natural order of hefperidece, (myrti, Juff.) Generic Cha¬ 
pters— Calyx: perianthium one-leafed, four or five 
cleft, bluntilli, fuperior, raifed internally into a fubvil- 
lofie ring, permanent. Corolla: petals four or five, ovate, 
entire, large, inferted into the calyx. Stamina : filaments 
very many, capillary, the length of the corolla, inferted 
into the calycine ring ; antherae roundifli, lmall. Piftil- 
lum ; germen inferior, two-celled or three-celled ; the 
feeds fixed to the partition ; ftyle fimple, filiform; Itigma 
blunt. Pericarpium : berry oval, umbilicated with the 
calyx, one, two, or three, celled. Seeds : few, kidney- 
M Y R 
form.— EJjhitial Char utter. Calyx five-cleft, fuperior; 
petals five; berry two or three-celled ; feeds feveral, 
gibbous. 
Of this elegant and celebrated genus, only one real 
fpecies was known to the older botanifts, of whofe varie¬ 
ties, as they are now,elleemed, Tournefort and the writers 
of his time made various fpecies, which fiill make a figure 
in gardeners’ catalogues, and indeed are, fome of them, 
very different from each other in their foliage. In the 
firft edition of his Species Plantarum, Linnaeus defines 
feven fpecies of Myrtus, and, in his fecond, thirteen. Of 
thefe, feveral have been removed to other genera; and 
efpecially the laft, M. leucadendra, (Sp. PI. 676.) was 
fublequently made a diftindt genus by Linnseus himfelf. 
See Melaleuca, vol. xiv. In the Mantifla, 74. is an ad¬ 
ditional Myrtus, named angujlifulia ; for which, fee Me- 
trosideros anguftifolia, vol. xv. p.273. Myrtus brafi- 
liana of Linnaeus is the fame as Eugenia uniflora, vol.vii. 
p. 57. Perhaps the genus might better be divided from 
the number of cells in the berry, and the fituation of the 
flowers. Accordingly, M. chytraculia and zuzygium, 
having a one-celled berry, are difmifled from this genus, 
and will be found under that of Cal yptranthes, vol.iii. 
p. 638. Dr Smith obferves, (Linn. Tranf. iii. 279.) that 
few genera are more confuted in the -works of Linnaeus 
than this of Myrtus. All that properly belong to it, are 
thofe that have a corolla of five petals with a five-cleft 
calyx, and a two-celled or three-celled berry. Thefe 
characters diftinguifh it from Eugenia, Pfidium, and Ca- 
lyptranthes. We, however, follow the arrangement of 
Mr. Profeffor Martyn, in his improved edition of Miller, 
which enumerates feveral fpecies with a four-cleft calyx ; 
in all, thirty-fix fpecies, befides varieties. 
1. Myrtus communis, or common myrtle: flowers fo- 
litary; involucre two-leaved. The common myrtle is 
well known as an elegant evergreen flirub, native of Afia, 
Africa, and the fouthern parts of Europe ; unfortunately, 
too tender to abide our winters without fome protection 
in England, except in the molt fouthern and weltern 
parts of the ifland. Trunk irregular, branching, covered 
with a brown rough fealing bark. Leaves ovate, or ovate- 
lanceolate, entire, fmooth on both Tides; dark-green, 
paler underneath, oppofite, and decuflated. The flowers 
come out lingly from the axils, and have a two-leaved in¬ 
volucre under them; corolla white ; berry inferior or be¬ 
low the calyx, lubovate, crowned with the permanent 
calyx, flefliy and fpongy, dark purple or black-blue, three- 
celled; feeds in each cell four or five, feldom more, kid¬ 
ney-form gibbous, whitifh, filming, fomewhat bony at 
the back, the belly filled with a fungous fubftance, fixed 
to the inner angle of the cells: they have a fingle cartila¬ 
ginous or fomewdiat-bony thick cover, no albumen, the 
the embryo conformable to the cavity of the feed, round- 
ifh, curved, milk-white: cotyledons femicylindric, fliort, 
incumbent : radicle twice the length of the cotyledons, 
femicircular-curved, inferior. They flower in July and 
Auguft. 
This elegant and fweetly-fcented flirub has been at all 
times the favourite theme of poets; cheriflied by lovers, 
as the rival of the role ; and, like that flower, dedicated 
to the goddefs of beauty. Virgil mentions it always con 
amore, and reprefents it as thriving moft fuccefsfully on 
the fea-fliores, (et amantes liltora myrtos. Geo. iv. 124.) 
of which they were reckoned a graceful ornament: littora 
myrtis Icetijfima. And, indeed, we have a proof of it in 
this country ; for there is hardly a place in the world 
where myrtles grow fo luftily and plentifully as on the 
(bores of Devonfliire and Cornwall. Some of them, be¬ 
tween twelve and fifteen feet in height, are not uncom¬ 
mon at Sidmouth, Exmouth, and all along that Provence- 
like and moft pleafing margin of the ocean. They adorn 
the cottage of the poor with as much pleafure as the in- 
clofed gardens of the rich; and, in October, are covered 
with large white blofloms, which, efpecially in the even¬ 
ing, and through the night, exhale a moft delightful per- 
x fume. 
