Inhabits Great Britain and other parts of Europe in woods, and thick hedges, seldom in gardens; collects nuts and walnuts, which it eats sitting upright, and buries what is left; forms a nest of grass, moss, or leaves, in the hollow of a tree or low bush; torpid in winter; brings from three to four young: body three inches long, tail rather longer.

MYOTOMY. (myotomia, μvotoμsa, from w, a muscle, and Tyw, to cut.) Dissection of the muscles.

MYRIAD. s. (p.) 1. The number of ten thousand. 2. Proverbially any great number (Milton).

MYRICA. Candleberry myrtle. In botany, a genus of the class monoecia, order tetrandria. Calyx, a concave scale of the ament; coroiless. Female styles two; berry one-seeded. Nine species scattered over the globe; of which the following are chiefly cultivated:

1. M. gale. Sweet gale, sweet willow, common candleberry myrtle, Dutch myrtle. It is found wild in our own marshes; rises with many shrubby stalks from two to near four feet high, dividing into several slender branches, covered with a dusty bark, sprinkled with white dots; leaves alternate, rigid, light or yellowish green, smooth, a little serrate towards their point, and emitting a fragrant odour when bruised; aments of a short ovate figure, yellowish-brown colour, and frequently sprinked with shining, resinous, golden particles; fruit a coriaceous berry. It is said that in the north of Europe this plant was used instead of hops in former times, and that it is still applied to the same use in the Hebrides, and some parts of the highlands of Scotland.

2. M. cerifera, American candleberry myrtle. Leaves lanceolate, slightly serrate, stem arboreous, rising to about thirty feet in height; flowers in aments on different individuals; male aments about an inch long, erect; female, sessile, axillary, shorter than the leaves: the branches of the old plants shed their leaves in autumn; but the young plants raised from seeds retain them through the greatest part of the winter, and offer the appearance of an evergreen. The flowers are small, of a whitish colour, and mean to the eye. Its leaves resemble myrtle leaves, and like them, on being rubbed in the hand, emit a most refreshing and delightful fragrance.

It is from the berries of this plant that the inhabitants of Carolina and other parts of America collect a wax, of which they very generally make candles. The wax is produced as follows. In November or December the wild berries are gathered by persons who are used to this occupation, and travel for this purpose with kettles towards the sand-banks or sea-side, in which these plants most abound; they build huts for themselves and their families with palmetto leaves, and usually continue about five weeks in a station. The trees are cut down, the berries put into porridge-pots, and afterwards boiled in water till the oil floats; this is then skimmed off into another vessel, and the skimming is continued as long as any oil rises VOL. VIII.

to the surface. When cold it hardens to the consistency of wax, and is of a dirty green colour. It is then boiled again, and clarified in brass kettles, which gives it a transparent green hue. The candles manufactured from this wax burn for a long time, and produce a fragrant smell: a small proportion of tallow however is usually added, which makes them burn clearer.

3. M. quercifolia. Oak-leaved candleberry myrtle. Shrubby, with slender stalks, and oblong, oppositely pinnate leaves, with oval aments between them. The plant retains its leaves all the year, and flowers in June and July.

The two first species may be raised from seeds, the last by layers. The former require a boggy moist situation, or a cultivation in bogearth. The layers of M. quercifolia should be attempted towards the latter end of the summer, or in the autumn, the shoots being twined at a joint when laid down, and well watered.

The first two are introduced into the midst of sheltered clumps and borders, and the last into collections of the green-house kind, when their leaves afford an exquisite fragrance.

MYRIOPHYLLUM. Water millfoil. In botany, a genus of the class monoecia, order hexandria. Calyx four-leaved; petals four. Male: stamens eight, longer than the calyx. Female: stigmas four; seeds four, covered with a bark. Two species, both common to the ditches of our own country.

MYRISTICA. Nutmeg-tree. In botany, a genus of the class dioecia, order triandria. Calyx three-cleft, corolless. Male: anthers uniting round the upper part of the filament. Female: stigma cloven, capsule superior, drupaceous, two-valved; nut invested with a variously lacerated membrane. Three species:

1. M. sebifera. A Guiana tree, with leaves hearted, oblong, downy underneath, and downy fruit. The tree rises from forty to sixty feet high, discharging a thick acrid red juice from its trunk on its being wounded; and yields a nutmeg, from which a considerable portion of fatty oil is expressed, employed by the natives of Guiana in the manufacture of candles.

2. M. fatua. A nutmeg-tree of Tobago, rising to the height of our common appletree; with oblong, lanceolate, downy leaves, and downy fruit. The nutmeg is aromatic, but narcotic; and when taken in considerable quantity produces delirium.

3. M. aromatica. Calyx ovate, three-cleft at the top leaves elliptic, pubescent underneath, alternate, pointed, undulate; peduncles axillary, solitary, two or three-flowered; fruit glabrous; nut surrounded with a fulvous, tough, reticulate covering, which is the mace of the shops.

It is doubtful whether the Greeks or Romans were acquainted with the nutmeg. It is said by some that Theophrastus alludes to it under the name of comacum, and by others that it is the chrysobalanos of Galen. Yet we know nothing decisively upon the subject. It was first introduced into modern Europe by

X

the Arabians, and in Avicenna it appears under the name of jiansiban, or jansiband, which signifies nut of Banda.

Both the male and female flowers yield a nut. The female nut is that in common use; the male is longer and more cylindric, but it has less of fine aromatic flavour. It is more subject to be worm-eaten, and to harbour the insect that preys upon the nutmeg, than the female; and hence the Dutch strictly prohibit its being packed up with the latter, lest the worm should be communicated to the whole package. The chief nutmeg trade lies at Ceylon; and has passed, with the islands, from the hands of the Dutch to those of the English.

When the fruit is ripe the natives ascend the trees, and gather it by pulling the branches towards them with long hooks. The first rind is instantly taken off, and the soil on which any large quantity of this is deposited shoots forth very speedily a nutmeg-boletus, or mushroom, from the putrefaction of the general mass, which is regarded by the natives as a very delicate food.

The mace is a filamentous substance, adhering to the nut, and traced after the external rind has been removed. Its first appearance presents a beautiful red; but the colour changes on exposure to the air to a darker hue. The mace being taken off with the knife, is laid to dry in the sun for eight or nine hours, and is then removed to a place less heating, that it may not become too dry; to prevent which, in a still greater degree, it is moistened with a small quantity of sea-water; and is afterwards put into small bags, and packed up very close.

The mace being thus stripped off, the nuts are still covered with their ligneous shell; and are exposed for three days to the sun, and afterwards to the fire, till they emit a sound on being shaken they are then beaten with small sticks, which break the remaining shells, and make them fly off in small pieces. The nuts are then distributed into three parts: the largest and most beautiful are selected for the European market; those of less beauty are reserved for the use of the inhabitants, or are employed for the purpose of affording oil by pressure: while the remainder, which consists of the smallest and the unripe, are burnt. A pound of nutmegs generally affords about three ounces of oil, of the consistence of tallow, and has all the taste of the nutmeg. This is the genuine oil of mace of the shops.

To preserve the select nutmegs, and fit them for an European voyage, they are plunged in small baskets, two or three times, into a thick lime-water prepared with the calcined shells of testaceous fishes, to which a considerable quantity of sea-salt has been added. With this calcareous matter they soon become completely covered over; when they are laid in a heap, and lose their superfluous water by evaporation. They are then properly prepared for sea-car

riage.

For the medical properties and preparations

of nutmeg, see the article NUX MOSCHATA, under which name it has been generally pre scribed in the different pharmacopoeias.

MYRMECIA, in botany, a genus of the class tetrandria, order monogynia. Calyx campanulate, five-toothed; corol tubular, with an inflated throat; glands five, surrounding the base of the germ; capsule two-celled, twovalved, many-seeded. One species: a climbing shrub of Guiana, with knotty square branches; leaves opposite, oblong; flowers small, solitary, axillary.

MYRMECOPHAGA. Ant-eater. In zoology, a genus of the class mammalia, order bruta. Toothless; tongue round, extensile ; mouth narrowed into a snout; body covered with hair. Seven species, inhabitants of South America, Cape of Good Hope, Australasia, or India. The following are the chief.

1. M. jubata. Great ant-eater. Toes on the fore-feet four, on the hind-feet five; tail bushy.

Another variety, with face and legs shorter, without a stripe on the sides and breast. The former and more common variety has a long slender nose; small black eyes; short round ears; slender tongue, two feet long, which lies double in its mouth; slender legs; the two middle claws on the fore-feet very large, strong, and hooked. The hair on the upper part of the body half a foot long, black mixed with grey. Across its shoulders there is a black stripe bounded above with white. The forelegs whitish, with a black spot above the feet. The hair of the tail coarse, black, and about a foot long. This animal is about three feet ten inches long; its tail two: it weighs above a hundred pounds. Inhabits Brazil and Guiana; runs slowly; swims over the great rivers, at which time it flings its tail over its back: lives on ants; overturns their nests, or digs them up with its feet, then thrusts its long tongue into their retreats, and withdraws it into its mouth loaded with prey: is afraid of rain, and protects itself from it by covering its body with its long tail: it does not attainits full growth under four years. Each species of this genus brings but one young one at a time. Notwithstanding its want of teeth, it is fierce and dangerous, especially when it has young. Nothing that it has once got between its fore-feet can disengage itself; the very panthers of America are often unequal to the combat. So great is its obstinacy and stupidity, that it will not extricate itself even from a dead adversary. It sleeps in the day, and preys by night. Its flesh has a strong disagreeable taste; but it is eaten by the Indians.

2. M. didactyla. Least ant-eater. Toes on the fore-feet two, on the hind-feet four tail bushy: nose conic, bending a little down; small ears, hid in its fur; upper parts covered with long soft silky hair, or rather wool, of a yellowish brown colour: seven inches and a half long: its tail, which is thick at the base, and tapers to a point, measures eight and a half, and is naked on the under side for the last four: it inhabits Guiana, and climbs trees in

quest of a species of ants which build their nests among the branches. It has the size and prehensile power of the squirrel: walks slowly on the heels; feeds only in the night; emits no

cry.

3. M. pentadactyla. Striped ant-eater. Toes on the fore-feet five: tail long, flat, entirely covered with hair: head thick, upper jaw and snout very long, eyes small; ears small, rounded, fringed above with black hairs; hair long; back, head, legs tawny; belly dirty white; tail annulate with blackish hair: length thirteen inches, height ten.

4. M. aculeata. Porcupine ant-eater. Body covered with long sharp spines: tail very long. Spines on the back and sides resembling those of a porcupine, white, with black tips, and a circle of dull orange between the colours; head and under-parts deep-brown; tail short, naked, a little flattened at the tip, covered at the root with upright spines; eyes small, black, irids blueish; legs short, thick, five-toed; toes broad, round; claws black, on the hind-feet only four, the first long, sharp, carved, second shorter, two others shorter still. Inhabits New Holland: size of a rat.

5. M. Capensis. Cape ant-eater. Toes on the fore-feet, four; snout long; ears large, pendulous; tail shorter than the body, tapering to the tip. Inhabits the Cape of Good Hope; nearly the size of a hog, and weighing almost a hundred pounds; burrows in the ground; sleeps by day, prowls by night. See Nat. Hist. Pl. CLV.

MYRMELEON. Lion-ant. Mouth with a horny acute mandible and jaw; feelers six; stemmåless; antennas thicker at the tip; wings deflected; tail of the male armed with a forceps composed of two straight filaments.

The animals of this family prey with the most savage ferocity upon ants and smaller insects, though they seem at first sight but ill calculated for this manner of life, all their progress in walking being backwards: by stratagem, however, the lion-ant masters insects far superior to itself in strength. In the loose sand it digs a hollow resembling a funnel, where it takes its station at the bottom, every part being concealed except the forceps, with which the head is armed. This instrument, which it can open or shut at pleasure, is curiously constructed for seizing and penetrating the hardest insect; and unhappy is the animal who, in pursuing it journey, stumbles into this cavern. In vain it endeavours to scramble up by the edges, which are continually giving way under its feet; it tumbles to the bottom, where it is pierced by the forceps of the lion ant lurking

below.

If the insect be small, and the grains of sand, notwithstanding the declivity of the funnel, do not give way under its feet, the myrmeleon has another invention by which he renders himself master of his prey; with his head, which is flattened, he throws up repeated showers of sand from the bottom of the funnel, which falling upon the sides, force down the insect till it comes within reach. The fatal instru

ments with which this animal seizes its prey are each a sort of mouth or trunk, by which it sucks out the entire entrails.

When the lion-ant has attained its full size, it constructs for itselt an edifice, the external parts of which are particles of sand or earth combined together by silken threads: the interior cavity is lined with pure silk, white and glossy, like satin. Within this ball the myrmeleon is changed into a chrysalis, of a curved or semicircular shape, displaying all the parts of the perfect insect that soon to issue from it.

After the chrysalis bursts, the winged insect which makes its escape is of a gray colour, with a long slender body, resembling the libellula. In this country the myrmeleon is very scarce; a few, however, are found to breed among the loose earth at the bottom of walls which have a south exposure. In that dry, pulverized, and sandy earth their eggs are protected from rain, till they are hatched by the sun. Vallisnieri and Poupart first gave the history of the lionant; that of the former is in the form of a dialogue between Malphighi and Pliny, in which the modern informs the ancient naturalist of the singular manœuvres and metamophosis of these animals. There are sixteen species; which may be thus subdivided.

A Hind-feelers much longer than the rest; jaw one-toothed; lip membranaceous, square, truncate, emargenate. B Feelers nearly equal; jaw ciliate; lip horny, rounded, entire. This division constitutes the ascalaphus of Fabricius. The different species inhabit the warmer parts of Europe, Africa, India, and America. The only species traced in our own country is M. formicarius; its wings clouded with brown, with a white marginal spot behind. See Nat. Hist. Pl. CLX.

MYRMIDONS, MYRMIDONES, in antiquity, a people on the southern borders of Thessaly, who accompanied Achilles to the Trojan war. They received the name from Myrmidon, a son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa, who married one of the daughters of olus, son to Helen. His son Actor married gina the daughter of Asopus. He gave his name to his subjects, who dwelt near the river eneus in Thessaly. According to some, the Myrmidons received their name from their having arisen from ants or pismires, upon a prayer put up for that purpose by king to Jupiter, after his kingdom had been dispeopled by a severe pestilence. According to Strabo, they received it from their industry, because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like them were indefatigable, and were continually employed in cultivating the earth.

cus

MYROBALANUS (myrobalanus. μ3devos, from μupo, an unguent, and fahavos, a nut, so called because it was formerly used in ointments.) A myrobalan. A dried fruit, of the plum kind, brought from the East Indies. All the myrobalans have an unpleasant, bitterish, very austere taste, and strike an inky blackness with a solution of sal martis. They

are said to have a gently purgative as well as an astringent and corroborating virtue. In this country they have been long expunged from the pharmacopoeias.

MYROBALANUS BELLIRICA. The bel liric myrobalan. This fruit is of a yellowish grey colour, and an irregularly roundish or oblong figure, about an inch in length, and three quarters of an inch thick.

MYROBALANUS CHEBULA. The chebule myrobalan. This resembles the yellow in figure and ridges, but is larger, of a darker colour inclining to brown, or blackish, and has a thicker pulp.

MYROBALANUS CITRINA. Yellow myrobalan. This fruit is somewhat longer than the belliric, with generally five large longitudinal ridges, and as many smaller between them, somewhat pointed at both ends.

MYROBALANUS EMBLICA. The emblic myrobalan is of a dark blackish grey colour, roundish, about half an inch thick, with six hexagonal faces, opening from one another. MYROBALANUS INDICA. The Indian or black myrobalan, of a deep black colour, oblong, octangular, differing from all the others in having no stone, or only the rudiments of one, from which circumstance they are supposed to have been gathered before maturity.

MYROBALANS. See MYROBALANUS. MYRODENDRUM, in botany, a genus of the class polyandria, order monogynia. Calyx five-toothed; petals five; stigma five-lobed; pericarp five-celled, with a single seed in each. One species; a Cayenne tree, fifty feet high, with leaves alternate, lanceolate, acute, clasping the stem, crenate, glabrous; flowers in terminal corymbs.

MYRODIA, in botany, a genus of the class monodelphia, order polyandria. Calyx single, tubular, bursting at top; petals five; style filiform; drupe dry, two or three-celled; the cell one-seeded. Two species, shrubs of the Caribbees and of Guiana.

MYRO'POLIST. s. (μupov and wwh.) One who feels unguents.

MYROSMA, in botany, a genus of the class monandria, order monogynia. Calyx double; the outer three-leaved, inner, threeparted; corol five-parted, irregular; capsule three-cornered, three-cciled, many-seeded. One species; a Surinam shrub, growing like the canna root; fleshy, ovate; raceme like the ament of a hop, imbricate, with alternate scales of the bractes; bractes two-leaved, twoflowered.

MYROTHECIUM, in botany, a genus of the class cryptogamia, order fungi. Fungus sessile, cup-shaped; the cupola volate above; seeds rather viscid. Five species; all exotic plants.

MYROXYLON, in botany, a genus of the class decandria, order monogynia. Calyx campanulate, five-toothed; petals five, the upper ones larger than the rest: germ longer than the corol; legume one-seeded at the tip. Three species, all natives of South America; of which the following is the chief.

M. peruiferum. Balsam of Peru tree. Tree with a smooth, thick, resinous bark; leaves abruptly pinnate, in double pairs; full of linear shining resinous dots; leaflets nearly opposite, ovate-lanceolate, with an obtuse emarginate tip; racemes axillary.

The balsam obtained from this plant is extracted from it by coction, and is brought over to the consistence of thin honey, of a reddishbrown colour, inclining to black, possessing an agreeable aromatic smell, and a very hot biting taste. Distilled with water this balsam yields a small quantity of a fragrant essential oil of a reddish colour; and gives also in a strong fire a yellowish red oil. For its medical properties, see BALSAMUM PERUVIANUM.

A botani

MYRRH. (myrrha, Hebrew.) cal specimen of the tree which affords this gumresin has not yet been obtained; but from the account of Mr. Bruce, who says it very much resembles the acacia vera, which is the mimosa nilotica of Linnéus, there can be little doubt in referring it to that genus, especially as it corresponds with the description of the tree given by Dioscorides. The tree that affords the myrrh, which is obtained by incision, grows on the eastern coast of Arabia Felix, and in that part of Abyssinia which is situated near the Red Sea, and is called by Mr. Bruce troglodite. Good myrrh is of a foul black red colour, solid and heavy, of a peculiar smell, and bitter taste. Its medicinal effects are warm, corroborant, and antiseptic; it has been successfully employed in phthisical cases as a pectoral; and although allied to some of the balsams, it is found to be more efficacious and less irritating to the system. There are several preparations of this drug in the London and Edinburgh pharmacopoeias.

MYRRH FERN, in botany. See SCANDIX.
MYRRHINE. See MURRHINE.

:

MYRSINE, in botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order monogynia. Corol half fivecleft, connivent; germ filling the corol; drupe one-seeded, with a five-celled nut. Two species; one an African plant with elliptic acute leaves, and axillary flowers, three together, on short peduncles and the other a plant of the Azores, with obovate, obtuse leaves, and subsessile flowers, crowded and somewhat corymbed. Both are occasionally found in our green-houses; and may be raised by planting cuttings of the young shoots in pots in summer, frequently giving them water, and restraining them to the shade.

MYRTACANTHA. (myrtacantha, pupras avea, from pros, a myrtle, and axare, a thorn; so called from its likeness to myrtle, and from its prickly leaves). Butchers broom. See Ruscus.

MYRTIFORUS, in anatomy, an appellation given to several parts, because of their resembling myrtle-berries.

MYRTIFORM CARUNCLES. The remains of the hymen. See GLANDULE MYRTIFORMES.

MYRTIFORM GLANDS, See GLANDULE

MYRTIFORMES.