MAY n.
of small white flowers along the slender branches. -- May apple (Bot.), the fruit of an American plant (Podophyllum peltatum). Also, the plant itself (popularly called mandrake), which has two lobed leaves, and bears a single egg-shaped fruit at the forking. The root and leaves, used in medicine, are powerfully drast…
MAYAN a.
Designating, or pertaining to, an American Indian linguistic stock occupying the Mexican States of Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, together with a part of Guatemala and a part of Salvador. The Mayan peoples are dark, short, and brachycephallic, and at the time of the discovery had attained a higher g…
MEADOWSWEET; MEADOWWORT n.
e genus Spiræa, especially the white- or pink-flowered S. salicifolia, a low European and American shrub, and the herbaceous S. Ulmaria, which has fragrant white flowers in compound cymes.
MEDICINE n.
A physician. [Obs.] Shak. Medicine bag, a charm; -- so called among the North American Indians, or in works relating to them. -- Medicine man (among the North American Indians), a person who professes to cure sickness, drive away evil spirits, and regulate the weather by the arts of magic. -- Medicine seal, a small g…
MENHADEN n.
An American marine fish of the Herring familt (Brevoortia tyrannus), chiefly valuable for its oil and as a component of fertilizers; -- called also mossbunker, bony fish, chebog, pogy, hardhead, whitefish, etc.
MERCY n.
lin in the year 1827. Communities of the same name have since been established in various American cities. The duties of those belonging to the order are, to attend lying-in hospitals, to superintend the education of girls, and protect decent women out of employment, to visit prisoners and the sick, and to attend perso…