starry down, and large, pale, rose-coloured flowers on short 3-4-flowered axillary stalks. Lozenges made from it (Pâtes de Guimauve) are in use. The whole plant is wholesome, and in seasons of scarcity, the inhabitants of some eastern countries

Marsh-Mallow (Althea officinalis).

often have recourse to it as a principal article of food. It is said to be palatable when boiled, and afterwards fried with onions and butter. The Hollyhock (q.v.) is commonly referred to this genus. MARSH-MA'RIGOLD (Caltha), a genus of plants of the natural order Ranunculaceae, having about 5 petal-like sepals, no petals, and the fruit consisting of several spreading, compressed, many-seeded follicles. C. palustris is a very common British

Marsh-Marigold (Caltha palustris).

plant, with kidney-shaped shining leaves, and large yellow flowers, a principal ornament of wet meadows and the sides of streams in spring. It partakes of the acridity common in the order; but the flower-buds, preserved in vinegar and salt, are said to be a good substitute for capers.

MARSHAL (Fr. maréchal, Teut. mare, horse, and sceale or schalk, servant), a term, in its origin, meaning a groom or manager of the horse, though eventually the king's marshal became one of the principal officers of state in England. The royal farrier rose in dignity with the increasing importance of the chevalerie, till he became, conjointly with the Constable (q. v.), the judge in the Curia Martiales,

or courts of chivalry. An earldom is attached to the dignity, and the office of earl-marshal is now hereditary in the family of the Duke of Norfolk. When the king headed his army in feudal times, the assembled troops were inspected by the constable and marshal, who fixed the spot for the encampment of each noble, and examined the number, arms, and condition of his retainers. With these duties was naturally combined the regulation of all matters connected with armorial bearings, standards, and ensigns. The constable's functions were virtually abolished in the time of Henry VIII., and the marshal became thenceforth the sole judge in questions of honour and arms. The earlmarshal is president of the English College of Arms, and appoints the kings-at-arms, heralds, and pursuivants. The marshal's functions were formerly exercised in time of peace in the Aula Regis or King's Great Court, and on the division of the Aula Regis, he appointed deputies in the new courts; hence arose the offices of Marshal of the King's (Queen's) Bench and of Exchequer, whose principal duty is to take charge of persons committed to their custody by the court. Besides the earl-marshal, there is a knight-marshal, or marshal of the king's (queen's) household. The Marshal of the King's Bench held two different courts, which have been altogether discontinued since 1849. The marshal or provostmarshal of the Admiralty is an officer whose duty it is to act ministerially under the orders of the Court of Admiralty in securing prizes, executing warrants, arresting criminals, and attending their

execution.

The dignity of marshal existed formerly in Scotland, where a different orthography was adopted, and the office of marischal was hereditary in the family of Keith. Sir Robert Keith, the marischal, was one of the most distinguished warriors in the army of Robert the Bruce; and his descendant, the marischal, in 1456, had the dignity of earl conferred on him with no other title but that of Earl Marischal. There is little doubt that the lyon king-at-arms was like the English kings-at-arms, originally subject to the marischal, but his dependance ceased at a very early period, and the heraldic functions discharged by the earl-marshal in England devolved in Scotland on the lord lyon, who held office directly from the crown. Scotland had no knightmarischal till 1633, when Charles I., at his coronation, created the office. In 1716, George, tenth Earl Marischal, was attainted in consequence of his share in the rebellion of the previous year, and the office has since been in abeyance. In France, the highest military officer is called a marshal, a dignity which originated early in the 13th century. There was at first only one Maréchal de France, and there were but two till the time of Francis I. Their number afterwards became unlimited. Originally, the marshal was the esquire of the king, and commanded the vanguard in war; in later times, the command became supreme, and the rank of the highest military importance. From the title of this class of general officers, the Germans have borrowed their Feld-marschall, and we our Field-marshal, a dignity bestowed on commanders distinguished either by elevated rank or superior talents.

MA'RSHALLING OF ARMS is the combining of different coats-of-arms in one escutcheon, for the purpose of indicating family alliance or office. In the earlier heraldry, it was not the practice to exhibit more than one coat in a shield, but the arms of husband and wife were sometimes placed accollée, or side by side, in separate escutcheons; or the principal shield was surrounded by smaller ones, containing the arms of maternal ancestors; and we not unfrequently find maternal descent or marriage

an escutcheon of pretence, in the centre of his achievement, instead of impaling, as in fig. 2.

Quartering (fig. 3), or the exhibiting different coats on a shield divided at once perpendicularly and horizontally, is the most common mode of marshalling arms, a practice which, however, was unknown till the middle of the 14th century. The divisions of the shield are called quarters, and are numbered horizontally, beginning at the dexter chief. The most common object of quartering is to indicato descent. The coats quartered in an escutcheon must all have been brought in by successive heiresses, who have intermarried into the family. In the case of a single quartering, the paternal arms are placed in the first and fourth quarters, and the maternal in the second and third. The third and fourth quarters may, in after-generations, be occupied by the arms of a second and third heiress. Sometimes an already quartered coat is placed in one of the four quarters of the escutcheon, then termed a grand quarter. We occasionally find the shield divided by perpendicular and horizontal lines into six, nine, or even more parts, each occupied by a coat brought in by an heiress; and in case of an odd number of coats, the last division is filled by a repetition of the first. In the course of generations, a shield may thus be inconveniently crowded by the accumulation of coats, including the several coats to which each heiress may, in a similar way, have become entitled, and in Germany, sometimes twenty or thirty coats are found marshalled in one escutcheon; but in British heraldry, families entitled to a number of quarterings, generally select some of the most important. Quarterings, at least in Scotland, are not allowed to be added to the paternal coat without the sanction of the heraldic authorities.

Sovereigns quarter the ensigns of their several states, giving precedence to the most ancient, unless it be inferior to the others in importance. In the royal escutcheon of the United Kingdom, England is placed in the first and fourth quarters, Scotland in the second, and Ireland in the third; the relative positions of Scotland and England being, however, reversed on the official seals of Scotland. Spain bears the arms of Leon in the first and fourth quarters, and Castile in the second and third. An elected king generally places his arms surtout on an escutcheon of pretence.

6

MARSH'S TEST. See ARSENIC.

MA'RSICO NUO'VO, a town in the Neapolitan province of Basilicata, 18 miles south of Potenza, built on a height, and exposed to violent winds. Pop. 6355.

MARSILEA'CE Æ, or RHIZOCARPE.E, a natural order of Acotyledonous plants, nearly allied to Lycopodiacea, but differing in the want of a stem, and in the usually stalked leaves. The species are all inhabitants of ditches and pools, chiefly in temperate regions, and two of them occur in various parts of Great Britain. No species was known to be of any importance till the discovery of the Nardoo (q. v.) of Australia.

MARSUPIA'LIA,

or MARSUPIATA, an extensive order or group of mammals, differing essentially from all others in their organisation, and especially in their generative system. The animals of this aberrant group originally received the name of Animalia Crumenata, or Purse-bearing Animals; and the names now employed have a similar signification, being derived from marsu pium, a pouch or bag. This marsupium, or pouch, which is situated on the abdomen of the female, contains the teats, and serves for the protection of the immature young; and is unquestionably the most marked characteristic of these animals. As the different genera of this order live upon various kinds of food-some being herbivorous, others insec tivorous, and others, again, purely carnivorouswe find various modifications of their organs of progression, prehension, and digestion; but as the most important of these modifications are noticed in the articles on the principal genera, we shall confine ourselves to the characters common to the group.

The leading peculiarity presented by the skeleton is the presence of the marsupial bones (see MAMMALIA), which are attached to the pubis, and are imbedded in the abdominal muscles. Another constant but less striking peculiarity is a greater or less inversion of the angle of the lower jaw. The organs of digestion, including the teeth, vary extremely, according to the nature of the food; a complex stomach and a cæcum of considerable size being present in some, while others (the carnivorous genera) have a simple stomach and no cæcum. The brain is constructed on a simpler type than in the placental mammals. The size of the hemispheres (fig. 1, A) is so small that they leave exposed the olfactory ganglion (a), the cerebellum (C), and more or less of the optic lobes (B), and they are but partially connected together by the

fornix' and 'anterior commissure,' the great cerebral commissure known as the

Fig. L

corpus callosum ' being absent. In accordance with this condition of the brain, these animals are all characterised by a low degree of intelligence, and are said (when in captivity) not to manifest any sign of recognition of their feeders. It is, however, in the organs of generation and mode of reproduction that these animals especially differ from all the ordinary mammals. Professor Owen, who has done more to elucidate this subject, and indeed the anatomy and physiology of marsupiata generally, than any other anatomist, observes that in all the genera of this

Brain of Opossum.

Fig. 2.

Outline of the Kangaroo about twelve hours after birth, shewing its natural size and external development at this period.

order the uterus is double, and the introductory passage more or less (sometimes wholly) separated into two lateral canals. Both the digestive and generative tubes terminate within a common Cloaca (q. v.), and there are various other points in which these animals manifest their affinity to the oviparous vertebrates. The marsupial bones serve important purposes in connection with their generative economy. 'In the female,' he observes, 'they assist in producing a compression of the Mammary gland necessary for the alimentation of a peculiarly feeble offspring, and they defend the abdominal viscera from the pressure of the young as these increase in size during their marsupial existence, and still more when they return to the pouch for temporary shelter,' while in the males they are subservient to the reproductive process. The marsupials belong to the aplacental division of the Mammalia (q. v.). The period of their gestation is short (26 days in the Virginian opossum, and 39 days in the kangaroo), and the young are produced in so immature a state, that the earlier observers believed that they were produced like buds from the nipples to which they saw them attached. The appearance presented by a young kangaroo of one of the largest species, within twelve hours of its being deposited in the pouch, is described by Professor Owen (from personal observation in the Zoological Gardens) as follows: 'It resembled an earthworm in the colour and semi-transparency of its integument, adhered firmly to the point of the nipple, breathed strongly but slowly, and moved its fore-legs when disturbed. The body was bent upon the abdomen, its short tail tucked in between the hind-legs, which were one-third shorter than the fore-legs. The whole length from the nose to the end of the tail, when stretched out, did not exceed one inch and two lines.' The mother apparently employs her mouth in placing the young at the nipple, where it remains suspended, involuntarily absorbing milk for a considerable time (probably about two months on an average), after which, it sucks spontaneously for some months. Although able from the first, by the muscular power of its lips, to adhere firmly to the nipple, it does not possess the strength to obtain the milk by the ordinary process of sucking. In the process, it is assisted by the adaptation of a muscle to the mammary gland, which, by con tracting, injects the milk from the nipple into the mouth of the adherent foetus; and to prevent the entrance of milk into the air-passage, the larynx is prolonged upwards to the aperture of the posterior nares, where it is closely embraced by the muscles of the soft palate. The air-passage is thus entirely separated from the throat, and the milk passes on either side of the larynx into the œsophagus.

Professor Owen has proposed that these animals should be divided into five tribes or primary groups, viz., Sarcophaga, Entomophaga, Carpophaga, Poephaga, and Rhizophaga, according to the nature of their food. With the exception of one American and one Malayan genus, all known existing marsupials belong to Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea.For further details regarding this order, the reader is referred to Waterhouse's Natural History of the Mammalia, vol. i., and to Owen's article Marsupi alia' in the Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology.

MARTABA'N, the name of a small town, in a province of that name, in British Burmah, on the banks of the river of the same name, and near its mouth in the Gulf of M., in lat. 16° 32′ N., long. 97" 35' E., was the first that fell into the hands of the British in the Burmese war in 1852.

MARTEL, CHARLES. See CHARLES MARTEL. MARTE'LLO TOWERS are round towers for

coast defence, about 40 feet high, built most solidly, and situated on the beach. They occur in several places round the coast of the United Kingdom; but principally opposite to the French coast, along the southern shore of Kent and Sussex, where, for many miles, they are within easy range of each other. They were mostly erected during the French war, as a defence against invasion. Each had walls of 5 feet thickness, and was supposed to be bomb-proof. The base formed the magazine; above were two rooms for the garrison, and over the upper of these the flat roof, with a 4-feet brick parapet all round. while howitzers on each side were to form a flanking heavy gun was to be placed to command shipping, defence in connection with the neighbouring towers. Although the cost of these little forts was very great, they are generally considered to have been a failure; their armaments have mostly been removed, and their garrisons of six to twelve pensioner-soldiers replaced by coast-guard men, or in some cases by old master-gunners.

On this roof a swivel

The name is said to be taken from Italian towers built near the sea, during the period when piracy was common in the Mediterranean, for the purpose of keeping watch and giving warning if a pirateThis warning was ship was seen approaching. given by striking on a bell with a hammer (Ital. martello), and hence these towers were called Torri da Martello.

MARTEN (Martes), a genus of digitigrade carnivorous quadrupeds of the family Mustelide, differing from weasels in having an additional false molar on each side above and below, a small tubercle on the inner side of the lower carnivorous cheek-teeth, and the tongue not rough-characters which are regarded as indicating a somewhat less extreme carnivorous propensity. The body is elongated and supple, as in weasels, the legs short, and the toes separate, with sharp long claws. The ears are larger than in weasels, and the tail is bushy. The martens exhibit great agility and gracefulness in their movements, and are very expert in climbing trees, among which they generally live. Two species are natives of Britain, the COMMON M., BEECH M., or STONE M. (M. foina), and the PINE M. (M. abietum), inhabiting chiefly the more rocky and wooded parts of the island; the former in the south, and the latter in the north. Both were once much more common than they now are, being sought after on account of their fur, and killed on every opportunity, because of their excessive depredations among game and in poultry-yards. The head and body are about 18 inches long, the tail nearly 10 inches. Both species are of a dark tawny colour, the Common M. having a white throat, and the Pine M. a yellow throat. Many naturalists regard them as varieties of one species, of which also they reckon the Sable (q. v.) to be another variety. The fur of the martens is of two sorts: an inner fur, short, soft, and copious, and long outer hair, from which the whole fur derives its colour. The Common M. is much less valuable for its fur than the Pine M., whilst the Pine M. is much less valuable than the sable; but skins of the Common M. are imported in great numbers from the north of Europe, and they are often dyed, and sold as an inferior kind of sable.

Pine M. skins are imported from the north of Europe, Siberia, and North America.-The martens generally have their retreats in the hollow trunks

1, Common Marten (Martes foina); 2, Pine Marten (Martes abietum).

of trees, or usurp the nest of a magpie or other bird, but sometimes among rocks. They are capable of a certain amount of domestication.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, an island on the southern coast of Massachusetts, 21 miles long and 6 miles in average width; it has 3 towns, the largest of which is Edgartown, settled in 1642 by emigrants from Southampton, England. Pop. of island, 4401.

MARTIAL (MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS), the first of epigrammatists, was born at Bilbilis, in Spain, 43 A.D. In 66, he came to Rome, where he resided till 100, when he returned to his native town. There he married a lady called Marcella, on whose property he lived till his death (about 104). When at Rome, he soon became famous as a wit and poet; received the patronage of the Emperors Titus and Domitian, and obtained from them the privileges of those who were fathers of three children, and, in addition, the rank of tribune, and the rights of the equestrian order. He lived, seemingly, in affluence, in a mansion in the city, and in Nomentum, a suburban villa, to both of which he makes frequent reference. From Rome, his reputation rapidly extended to the provinces; and even in Britain his Epigrammata, which, divided into 14 books, now form his extant works, were familiarly read. These books, which were arranged by himself for publication, were written in the following order: the first eleven (including the Liber de Spectaculis) were composed at Rome, with the exception of the third, which was written during a tour in Gallia Togata; the 12th was written at Bilbilis; and the 13th and 14th at Rome, under Domitian. The last two, entitled Xenia and Apophoreta, describe, in distichs, the various kinds of souvenirs presented by the Romans to each

To the other books, we are other on holidays. also indebted for much of our knowledge of the manners and customs which prevailed under the Emperors Nero, Galba, Otho, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan, under whose collective reigns he spent 35 years of his life. His works have also a great literary value, as embodying the first specimens of what we now understand by epigram-not a mere inscription, but a poem of two or more lines, containing the terms of an antithesis, which goes off with a repercussion at the close. The wonderful inventiveness and facility displayed by M. in this species of composition have always received the highest admiration, only qualified by his disgusting grossness, which, blameworthy in him, was even more so in the age by which it was demanded and relished. The best edition of M. is that of Schneidewin. He has never found an adequate translator.

MARTIAL LAW is a collective name for those laws to which the individuals composing the military and naval forces of a country are subject, but which do not apply to civilians. As, however, the soldier remains a citizen, he is governed by the common law in all matters not coming under the cognizance of the martial law, the degree to which the latter is applicable to his actions varying in different countries, and in times of peace and war. In France and Austria, a soldier's offences against the civil code are dealt with by a court-martial; while among British troops-unless serving against an enemy-the civil tribunals deal with non-military offences.

The maintenance of discipline and other obvious causes necessitate, for a body of armed men, a code of laws and regulations much more strict and severe in their penalties, as well as more prompt in their execution, than suffices for ordinary society. Accordingly there have always been martial laws, more or less clearly defined, where there have been armies. For the nature of the rules under which the discipline of the British army is kept up, see ARTICLES oF WAR and MUTINY ACT.

There is yet another phase of martial law, and that is the degree of severity which may be applied to an enemy. All authorities agree that the life of an enemy taken in arms is forfeit to his captor; but modern ideas preclude his being put to death, unless in open resistance; and the massacre of prisoners in cold blood, once thought lightly of, is now esteemed a barbarity, which nothing but the most urgent circumstances, such as their uprising, or their attempted rescue by their countrymen, could justify. The slaughter of the captive Mamelukes at Jaffa has left an indelible stain on Napoleon's memory. As regards civil population and property, much amelioration has taken place with advancing civilisation. For merly, the devastation of the country, and the destruction, accompanied even by torture, of the inhabitants, was deemed a legitimate feature of war. Now, the rule is to spare private property, to respect personal liberty, unless the inhabitants directly or indirectly aid the enemy, and only to lay waste so much ground as military necessities may require. Such at least is the principle professed; but few commanders are able to prevent their troops from deeds of violence. A province occupied by a hostile army is usually considered under martial law.' This means that civil law is defunct, and all government under military regimen; but it is impossible to define the bounds of this martial law; nor is any more correct dictum on the subject likely to be arrived at than that celebrated saying of the Duke of Wellington when he described it as 'the will of the commander-in-chief.'

MARTIGNY, or MARTINACH (the Octodurus of the Romans), a small town of Switzerland, in the canton of Valais, is situated on the Drance, an affluent of the Rhone, about 24 miles south-southeast from the east end of the Lake of Geneva. The two noted routes, one to the vale of Chamouni by the Tête Noire or the Col de Balme, and another to the Great St Bernard, branch off here. M. is on the Simplon road into Italy. It is a great resort for tourists, and has a population of about 1200. MARTIGUES, a small town of France, in the department of Bouches du Rhone, is situated on three islands, united by bridges, in the entrance to the Etang de Berre, 16 miles north-west of Marseille. From the peculiarity of its position, it has been called the Provençal Venice. Pop. 8500, who are engaged in the tunny and pilchard fisheries. MARTIN. See SWALLOW.

MARTIN, Bishop of Tours, and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, was born in Pannonia about the year 316. He was educated at Pavia, and at the desire of his father, who was a military tribune, entered the army, first under Constantine, and afterwards under Julian the Apostate. The virtues of his life as a soldier are the theme of more than one interesting legend. On obtaining his discharge from military service, M. became a disciple of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (q. v.). He returned to his native Pannonia, and converted his mother to Christianity, but he himself endured much persecution from the Arian party, who were at that time dominant; and in consequence of the firmness of his profession of orthodoxy, he is the first who, without suffering death for the truth, has been honoured in the Latin Church as a confessor of the faith. On his return to Gaul, about 360, he founded a convent of monks near Poitiers, where he himself led a life of great austerity and seclusion; but in 371 he was drawn by force from his retreat, and ordained Bishop of Tours. The fame of his sanctity, and his repute as a worker of miracles, attracted crowds of visit. ants from all parts of Gaul; and in order to avoid the distraction of their importunity, he established a monastery near Tours, in which he himself resided. His life by his contemporary, Sulpicius Severus, is a very curious specimen of the Christian literature of the age, and in the profusion of miraculous legends with which it abounds, might take its place among the lives of the medieval or modern Roman Church. The only extant literary relic of M. is a short Confession of Faith on the Holy Trinity, which is published by Galland, vol. vii. 559. In the Roman Catholic Church, the festival of his birth is celebrated on the 11th November. In Scotland, this day still marks the winter-term, which is called Martinmas (the mass of St Martin). Formerly, people used to begin St Martin's Day with feasting and drinking; hence the French expressions martiner and faire la St Martin, ‘to feast.'

MARTIN, the name of five popes, of whom the fourth and fifth deserve a brief notice. MARTIN IV. (Nicholas de la Brie), a Frenchman,

was elected in 1281. His name is best known in connection with the memorable tragedy of the Sicilian Vespers.' Having been from the time of his election a devoted adherent of Charles of Anjou, he supported that monarch with all his influence, and even by the spiritual censures which he had at his command, in his effort to maintain French domination in Sicily; and it is to his use of the censures of the church in that cause that many Catholic historians ascribe the decline and ultimate extinction of the authority in temporals which the papacy had exercised under the distinguished pontiffs who

preceded him. He died at Perugia in 1285.-MARTIN V. must be noticed as the pontiff in whose election was finally extinguished the great WESTERN SCHISM (q. v.). He was originally named Otho Colonna, of the great Roman family of that name. On the deposition of John XXIII., and the two rival popes Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., in the council of Constance, Cardinal Colonna was elected. He presided in all the subsequent sessions of the council, and the Fathers having separated without discussing the questions of reform, at that period earnestly called for in the church, Martin undertook to call a new council for the purpose. The council was summoned accordingly, after several years, to meet at Siena, and ultimately assembled at Basel in 1431. Martin died in the same year.

MARTIN, JOHN, an English painter, was born in the neighbourhood of Hexham, Northumberland, 19th July 1789, went to London in 1806, and-after some years spent in obscure struggles-made his first appearance as an exhibiter at the Royal Academy in 1812. His picture was entitled 'Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion,' and attracted much notice. It was followed within two years by the Expulsion from Paradise,' 'Clytée,' and 'Joshua commanding the Sun to stand Still.'' The last of these works was a great success in point of popu larity, but it was also the cause of a quarrel between M. and the Academy, in consequence of which he never obtained any distinction from the society. From this period till nearly the close of his life, he incessantly painted pictures in a style which was considered sublime,' by the same sort of people who thought Montgomery's Satan and Pollok's Course of Time equal to Paradise Lost. The principal of these 'sublime' productions are 'Belshazzar's Feast' (1821); 'Creation' (1824); 'The Deluge' (1826); The Fall of Nineveh' (1828); Pandemonium' (1841); 'Morning' and 'Evening' (1844); The Last Man' (1850). M. died at Douglas, Isle of Man, February 9, 1854.

MARTIN, ST, one of the Lesser Antilles, lies in Area about

18° 4' N. lat., and 63° 8′ W. long. 30 square miles. The northern part of St M. belongs to France, and the southern to the Netherlands. It is mountainous in the interior, indented with bays, and is about four square leagues in extent. There are salt marshes from which much salt is made; and sugar-canes, cotton, tobacco, maize, plantains, bananas, and other West India Pan produced 301,234 vats of salt, valued at products are cultivated. of the island about 3450; of the Netherlands part, £15,060 sterling. Population of the French part 3157. The law for emancipating the slaves in the Netherland West Indies, which passed the Statesgeneral August 1862, came into operation July 1863.

In 1860, the Great Salt

MARTI'NA, a fine town of the Neapolitan province Terra di Otranto, situated on a hill 18 miles north-north-east of Taranto. Pop. 14,500. It is a rising industrious place, and has a fine palace of similar architecture to the great Roman palace

Panfili.

MARTINEAU, HARRIET, an English authoress, was born at Norwich 12th June 1802. Her educa tion was conducted for the most part at home; from an early age she was a lover of books, and was wont to amuse her solitary hours by committing her thoughts to paper. Her father's affairs becoming embarrassed, she was compelled to procure her own livelihood; in the first instance, it is said, as a teacher of music, which profession she was compelled to relinquish from deafness, when she began to turn her attention to literature. If this be so,