MARSUPIALS.--An order of Mammalia in which the young are born in a very
incomplete state of development, and carried by the mother, while sucking,
in a ventral pouch (marsupium), such as the kangaroos, opossums, etc. (see
MAMMALIA).
MAXILLAE.--in insects, the second or lower pair of jaws, which are composed
of several joints and furnished with peculiar jointed appendages called
palpi, or feelers.
MELANISM.--The opposite of albinism; an undue development of colouring
material in the skin and its appendages.
METAMORPHIC ROCKS.--Sedimentary rocks which have undergone alteration,
generally by the action of heat, subsequently to their deposition and
consolidation.
MOLLUSCA.--One of the great divisions of the animal kingdom, including
those animals which have a soft body, usually furnished with a shell, and
in which the nervous ganglia, or centres, present no definite general
arrangement. They are generally known under the denomination of
"shellfish"; the cuttle-fish, and the common snails, whelks, oysters,
mussels, and cockles, may serve as examples of them.
MONOCOTYLEDONS, or MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS.--Plants in which the seed sends
up only a single seed-leaf (or cotyledon); characterised by the absence of
consecutive layers of wood in the stem (endogenous growth), by the veins of
the leaves being generally straight, and by the parts of the flowers being
generally in multiples of three.
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