MUCORINI, an order of fungi very widely distributed, comprising chiefly what are known as the common moulds, which are found on decaying bread and other articles of food, or vegetable or animal matter generally. One species, phycoffwees nitens, grows on greasy substances, a habitat not usual with most fungi. Most members of the order are very small, many of them microscopic. The mumr mowed° is one of the most common species and was particularly described by Dr. Brefeld in 1812. Fresh horse-dung kept in a moist place soon becomes covered with white glistening fibers, the mycelium of the MUCOr muccdo. They appear to flourish in decaying matter rich in nitrogen, and evolv ing ammonia. From the coating there project slight white threads, whose tips soon become black. These are the spore-bearing stalks, or conidia, and they manifest a strong tendency to turn toward the light which is not the case with the spore stalks of the common bread mould, they appearing to be indifferent to light. If the of lancor raucedo is.kept moist it changes in form, and certain cross partitions increase in number, the cells produced in this way swelling into a spherical form. The protoplasm of the cells becomes developed into round bodies resembling spores, which have the power of germination. If the mucor winced° is grown in a decoction of horse dung it bears only conidia. The principal genera are tumor, circinella, helicostylum, thanmi dium, chmtostylum. chwtoeladium, mortierella, piptocephalis, syncephalis, kickxella, armansia, martensella, and plobolus.
liT•DAR, Calotropis, a genus of shruhs of the natural order asclepiadacece, distin vdshed by a coronet of fine blunt processes adhering to the base of the filaments. They
are natives of the East Indies, and the bark of the root, and the inspissated milky juice of some of them, arc much used there as an alterative, purgative, emetic, and sudorific medicine. The medicinal properties of mudar have been well known in India for many centuries, and have begun to attract the attention of European physicians. It is found of great value in elephantiasis, and in leprosy and other obstinate cutaneous diseases, as well in some spasmodic affections, and in syphilis.—The species most common in the south of India is C. gigantea; in the north. C. Ilamiltonii; whilst C. procera, said le have an extremely acrid juice, extends into Persia, and even into Syria. Mudar is very common in India, springing up in uncultivated ground, and often troublesome in that which is cultivated. It is n large shrub, with stems often thicker than a man's leg; and broad fleshy leaves. It grows where almost nothing else will, on very dry sands, and rapidly' attains a, large size. The Silky down, of the used for making a soft, cotton-like thread; but is short, and not easily spun. Theitmer bark also yields a strong and useful fiber, which makes excellent cordage and fishing-lines; but the mode of pre paration hitherto used makes it costly.—The inspissated milky juice of mudar collected by making incisions in the bark, is used as a substitute for caoutehouc and gutta-pereha. It becomes flexible when heated.—The mudar of medicine contains a principle called mudarine, on which its medicinal virtues are supposed to depend, and which possesses the rare property of gelatinizing when heated, and becoming fluid when again cooled.