Search the Dictionary

A species of the genus Myrtus, especially Myrtus communis. The common myrtle has a shrubby, upright stem, eight or ten feet high. Its branches form a close, full head, thickly covered with ovate or lanceolate evergreen leaves. It has solitary axillary white or rosy flowers, followed by black several-seeded berries. The…

A tree of the West Indies related to the myrtle (Pimenta acris).

tially decomposed vegetable fiber. P. Cyc. -- Bog moss. (Bot.) Same as Sphagnum. -- Bog myrtle (Bot.), the sweet gale. -- Bog ore. (Min.) (a) An ore of iron found in boggy or swampy land; a variety of brown iron ore, or limonite. (b) Bog manganese, the hydrated peroxide of manganese. -- Bog rush (Bot.), any rush gr…

A shrub (the Myrica cerifera, or wax-bearing myrtle), common in North America, the little nuts of which are covered with a greenish white wax, which was formerly, used for hardening candles; -- also called bayberry tree, bayberry, or candleberry.

o for the dress of some clergymen. A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn. Pope. Crape myrtle (Bot.), a very ornamental shrub (Lagerströmia Indica) from the East Indies, often planted in the Southern United States. Its foliage is like that of the myrtle, and the flower has wavy crisped petals. -- Oriental crape. Se…

gularly, as crape or water; to wrinkle; to cause to ripple. Cf. Crimp. The lover with the myrtle sprays Adorns his crisped tresses. Drayton. Along the crisped shades and bowers. Milton. The crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold. Milton.

To mix together; to intermingle. In yonder spring of roses, intermixed With myrtle, find what to redress till noon. Milton.

to walls and trees by rootlike fibers. Direct The clasping ivy where to climb. Milton. Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere. Milton. American ivy. (Bot.) See Virginia creeper. -- English ivy (Bot.), a popular name in America for the ivy proper (Hedera helix). -- German ivy (Bot.), a creeping plant, with smooth, succ…

In addition; further; besides; again. Yet once more, Oye laurels, and once more, Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. Milton. More and more, with continual increase. "Amon trespassed more and more." 2 Chron. xxxiii. 23. -- The more, to a greater degree; by an added quant…

A large genus of tropical American trees and shrubs, nearly related to the true myrtles (Myrtus), from which they differ in having very few seeds in each berry.

genus of shrubs and trees, usually with aromatic foliage. It includes the bayberry or wax myrtle, the sweet gale, and the North American sweet fern, so called.

embling, a large and important natural order of trees and shrubs (Myrtaceæ), of which the myrtle is the type. It includes the genera Eucalyptus, Pimenta, Lechythis, and about seventy more.

Resembling myrtle or myrtle berries; having the form of a myrtle leaf.

] The common profit could she redress. Chaucer. In yonder spring of roses intermixed With myrtle, find what to redress till noon. Milton. Your wish that I should redress a certain paper which you had prepared. A. Hamilton.

produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke; as, to strike a light. Waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. Milton.

uter edge. The larva is yellowish white with brownish dots. Called also bee moth. -- Wax myrtle. (Bot.) See Bayberry. -- Wax painting, a kind of painting practiced by the ancients, under the name of encaustic. The pigments were ground with wax, and diluted. After being applied, the wax was melted with hot irons and t…

The wax-covered fruit of the wax myrtle, or bayberry. See Bayberry, and Candleberry tree.