MOR
lycoperftcon> or love-apple only. iEmilius Macer tells us, that in his time all the plants called by the Greeks Jirydma, were called by the Latins Morella.
MORETUM, among the Romans, a kind of fallad, compofed of the eight following Ingredients, viz. garlic, parfley, rue, coriander, onions, cheefe, oil and vinegar. Pitifc. invoc
MORGAY, an Englim name for the fea fifh called alio the rough bound-fijh, one of the galeus kind ; the catulus minor of Salvian, and muftelus Jlellarh tertius of Bellonius. It is of a pale, and fomewhat reddith grey, and is fpottcd with brown and whitifh fpots ; the belly is filver white', and the body long and round ; its fkin is very rough, and its flefh very firm, and finely flavour'd. Some fay it taftes of mufk, or fome fuch perfume. It is the fmalleft of all this genus of fifties, and feldom weighs above a pound and half. Willugh- by's Hilt Fife. p. 64.
It is common in the Mediterranean, and is frequent in the markets in Italy.
MORGII, among the Mahometans, a feet who lay much ftrefs upon belief, and ftand oppofed to the Alwaidii. See the ar- ticle Alwaidii.
MORHUA, in zoology, a name ufed by fome authors for the common cod-fifJh. Bellon. de Pifc.
MORJAM, in our old writers, a head.piece called a pot, Stat. 4 & 5 P. & M. c. 2. The word comes from the French Morion, or Italian Morione, i. e. CaJJis. Cowel.
MORILLON, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of duck, feeming the fame with the capo rojfo, a fmall red-headed wild duck. Seethe article Capo Roj/b.
MOR1NA, in botany. This plant, in the Linnasan fyftem, makes a diftinft genus, the characters of which are, that the cup is double, and of two kinds, in the fame plant ; the one a perianthium of the fruit, which is monophyllous, cylindra- ceous, and remains after the flower is fallen oft. The rim of this has ten notches in it, two of which have longer fegments, which ftand oppofite to one another. The other cup is the perianthium of the flower, which is alfo compofed of one leaf, and is of a tubular form, and nightly bifid, the fegments being rimmed at their edges, pointed, and remaining alfo when the flower is fallen. The flower is a fingle petal, forming a very long tube, a little bent, and wider at top than the bottom. The rim is plain, obtufe, and divided into two lips; the upper of which is bifid, and the lower trifid. AH the fegments are of a roundifh figure, and nearly equal in fize. The ftamina are too flender filaments, laid clofe againft. the ftyle, fhorter than the flower. The antheras are eredt, and applied clofely to one another. The piftil has a roundifh germen, placed under the receptacle of the flower ; the ftyle is of the fame length with the ftamina ; and the ftigma is formed into a fmall head. It has properly no fruit ; the feed fucceeding each flower being fingle, roundifh, and fur- rounded with the cup of the flower. Linn&i Gen. Plant, p. 7.
MORINELLUS, in zoology, the name given by authors to the bird commonly called in Englim, the dotterel. The ufual weight of this bird is a quarter of a pound ; but the male is fmaller than the female, and weighs ufually half an ounce lefs. Its Beak is a finger's breadth long. Its head is very beautifully variegated with fmall black and white fpots ; and has a line of white over the eyes. Its throat is of a grey- ifh white, variegated with ftreaks of brown. Its breaft and the under part of its wings arc of a dufky yellow. The belly is white ; and its back and wings are brown, with variegations of a whitifh and yellowifh colour. Its rump is grey ; as is alfo its neckj and its tail is variegated with grey, black, and white. It is common in Lincolnfhire, and fome other counties of Eng- land ; and is a very delicate bird. It is commonly caught in the Night. Ray's Ornith. p. 230.
Morinellus Marinas, the Sea Dotterel a name given by authors to the bird, commonly known in England by the name of the turnjlone ; and called by Turner, cinclus. Ray's Ornithol. p. 231. See the article Turnstone.
MORINGA, in botany, the name by which fome authors call the tree which produces the ben nut, otglans ungue/itaria, and whofe wood is the lignum nepbritiewn, or nephritic wood of the fhops.
MORION, in botany, a name given by the antients to a kind of nightfhade. The antient Greeks, Theophraftus, and others, called all the nightfhades in general by the mmejlrycb- nos. Some of thefe they faid were poifonous, and others ef- culent. The poifonous were of two kinds, fome bringing on fleepy diforders, and others making the patient mad. The efculent kind was the pomumamoris, or love-apple, eaten at this time by the Portuguefe, and many other nations, and by fome in England. Some after-writers ufed the word Mo- rion as a difiin&ive name for thofe kinds of nightfhade which caufed fleepy diforders ; and after thefe, fome ufed it as the peculiar name of one fpecies, and others as the name of the male mandrake of Dfofeorides, whofe fruit, according to that author, was comnmnly eaten by the fhepherds ; but when taken too largely, threw them into fleepy diforders. From this word Morton has come, in all probability, the Latin name morella^ given at firft to the pomum amoris, or love- P(iU* j and afterwards, according to A ; .milius Macer, to all
MOR
the nightfliades; for he exprefsly fays, that thofe plants' which the Greeks called Jlrychna, the Latins called Karelia 5 and we find that the old Greeks called all the nightfliades flrychna.
Morion, in the natural hiftory of the antients, a name given to one of the femi-pellucid gems, more commonly called pramnion. It is a ftone appearing externally only of a fine deep black ; but when held up againft a candle, or againft the fun-fhine, giving a very beautiful red, in different degrees, from that of the hyacinth to that of the amethift or carbuncle. Hill's Hift.of Folf. p. 471. See the article Pramnion.
MORISONA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The perianthium is one-leaved j inflated, and divided at the top into two lips. Thefe ftand open ; but the neck is contracted, and the whole foon withers. The flower confifts of four oblong obtufe petals, which are expanded when they are out of the cup. The ftamina are numerous filaments. The anthers are limple. The ftyle is capillary and credt, and is longer than the tube of the flower; The germen of the piftil is oval. The ftigma is capitated, and of a plano-convex figure. The fruit is a globofe berry, with a hard fmooth rind. It has only one cell, and is fup- ported by the ftyle by way of pedicle. The feeds are nume- rous, and are of the ftiape of the common kidney-beans, hut fmall. Plumier. Gen. 23. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 230.
MORL1NG, or Mortling, in our old writers, the wool which is taken from the fkin of dead fheep, whether killed, or dying of the rot, 4. Edw. 4. cap. 2. he 3. 27 Hen. 6- cap. 2. 3 Jac. 1. cap. 18. 14 Car. 2. c. 18. Blount, Cowel. See the article Shorling.
MOROCHITES, in natural hiftory, a name by which fome of the old authors have called the morochtbus, or French chalk. Hill's Hift. of FofT p. 22. See the next article.
MOROCHTHUS, inthehiftoryof foffils, anameofan indurated clay, commonly known among us by the name of trench chalk, or marking-ftune; and its principal ufe with us is the taking fpots out of cloaths, and the ferving taylors to mark with, as it makes a much more determinate and a neater line than chalk. The antients, however, had it much in efteem in medicine, and ufed it as an aftringent, and in colics and haemorrhages, and externally in diforders of the eyes. It is diftinguifhed from all other earths, by being the hardeft of all, confiderably heavy, very fmooth to the touch, and in colour of agreyifh white, with a confiderable admixture of green. It is of a difagreeable brackilh tafte, and does not ferment with acids. It is dug in Germany, the ifland of Sardinia, and many other places ; but no where fo plentifully as about Brianfon in France, whence it is there commonly called Brian- fin chalk. Hill's Hift. of Foil", p. 22.
MOROCTES, one of the names by which Pliny, and fome other of the older authors called the Moracht bus, or French chalk. Hill's Hift. of Foil", p. 22. See the foregoing ar- ticle.
MORONA, a name ufed by fome for the bufo, or ifinglafs-fifh. Willugbby, Hift. Pifc. See the article Huso.
MORPHASMUS, Mo^a^or, among the antients, a kind of dance, wherein, by a great many figures, they imitated the transformations of Proteus. Hofm. Lex. in voc,
MORRHA, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome to the fubftance more properly called tnurra or myrrha, of which the cups called murrbina and myrrhina were made. See the articles Murrhina andMoRRHiNA.
MORRHINA Vafa, in the writings of the antients, a term very frequently met with, and ufed to exprefs a fort of cup and vafes ufed for drinking out of, and on fome other oc- cafions.
The word is generally written myrrhina, and various con- jectures have been formed concerning it, fome fuppofing it to be meant of veflels made of myrrh, fome of the onyx, and fome of a peculiar fort of fpotted ftone. Seethe article Myr- rhina.
The word, however, is written by all the moft correct writers Morrhina. Paufanius and many others give us proofs of this. It is evident that there is no ftone mentioned by the antients under the name morrba, nor is this word ever found ufed as a fynonym for the onyx, or any other ftone, but al- ways as the name of the matter of which the veflels were made.
The antients had many things in ufe among them, the nature and origin of which were unknown to them ; and this morrba feems to have been one of that number. Some of them fay it was a ftone, and others call it a fluid, condenfed by being buried under ground. And if to this we add the beauty of the polifh, the tender texture of the fubftance, which was eafily broken by a fall, and the fize of fome of the veflels made of it ■ for we are told that Heliogabalus had his cham- ber-pot made of it ; it will appear very probable that it was a factitious matter, and was of the nature of our China ware. The antients, not knowing that the morra was a factitious fubftance, which it does not appear indeed that they- did, does not prove it not to be fuch ; for they for many ages wore gar- ments of filk, and had that fubftance in ufe on many other occafions, and all the time believed it to be the lanugo or down of a tree, drefied by combine, &c, and it was nut till
the
