melaphyre (melafir)

[ it has been used by lithologists, includes a considerable variety of rocks; but, as now generally restrict ed, it is properly applied to such basalts as have undergone considerable alteration. Hence the melaphyres are, in point of fact, mostly of Paleozoic age, although some are Mesozoic, because the older a rock is, other things being equal, the more likely it is to have undergone chemical change. 3696 ral order of dicotyledonous polypetalous plants of the cohort Myrtales. The ovules are attached to the interior angle of the cells, or to basal placentæ; the anther usually opens at the top by two pores; the connec tive is thickened or variously append aged; and the leaves have from 3 to 9 nerves. The order embraces 133 genera and about 2,500 species, which are almost entirely confined to the tropics, and are most abundant in South America. Melia cardinal teeth; the true pearl-oysters. The pearl oyster is M. mar gar it if era, a species widely distributed in most parts of the world, in warm seas; it sometimes attains a length of 10 or 12 inches. Meleagris (mel-e-a'gris), (mel-e-ā'g Old and New Worlds. 9 Gr. μελεαγρίς, a sort of guinea-fowl, named after Meleager, L. Meleagrina (Avicula) mar. Meleager, son of Eneus, &, by al foramen or notch; and the hero of the hunt of g, suspensors of the gills. the Calydonian boar.] 1. In ornith.: (a) [l. c.] A name of the common guinea-fowl, to which Linnæus gave the technical specific name Numida meleagris. (b) An American genus of Phasianidæ or Meleagridæ, of large size with varied metallic plumage, naked tarsi spurred in the male, bare head with erectile fleshy caruncles, and a tuft of hair-like feathers on the breast; the turkeys. There are three kinds: M. gallopavo or mexican a, the supposed original of the domestic turkey, differing little from M. sylvestris or american a, the common wild turkey of the United States; and the more beautiful and very distinct ocellated turkey of Honduras, M. ocellata. See turkey. 2. In conch., a genus of mollusks: same as Mele agrin a. Montfort, 1810.