Page:LA2-NSRW-3-0168.jpg



MARBLE FAUN

1168

MARCHANTIA

ally is a metamorphosed limestone. It therefore occurs chiefly in regions of meta-morphic rock. Between limestone, which is not crystalline, and marble there are all gradations, and thoroughly crystalline limestone, if it is not valuable for some of the purposes mentioned above, is rarely called marble. The color of marble depends on the purity of the limestone from which it is made. If considerable quantities of materials other than lime carbonate or magnesia carbonate are present, the color depends upon the nature and distribution of these impurities in the rock. Pure marble is white, but impurities may make it red, brown, yellow, black; or, if the impurities be irregularly distributed, the marble may be mottled or clouded. Onyx or onyx marble is a variety oi marble formed by the precipitation of lime carbonate in solution, usually from the waters of springs. All limestone formed by precipitation is travertine, which includes stalactites, stalagmite etc., but only those varieties of travertine which have beautiful colors and are translucent are called onyx. Onyx is used for decorative purposes in the interiors of buildings, for wainscoting, lavatories etc. The onyx of ancient time was derived principally from Egypt. The principal American sources are Mexico, Lower California, southern California and Arizona. The colors of onyx are various, white, yellow and green being common. It is often mottled and beautifully veined. Certain varieties of variegated serpentinous rock are sometimes called verd antique marble. Marble is widely distributed, but the commercial product of the United States is derived mainly from Vermont, Georgia, New York, Tennessee, Maryland, California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. More than half came from Vermont. See, also CARRARA

Mar'ble Faun, The, a romance written in the later life of Nathaniel Hawthorne, was begun in Rome in 1859 and continued in Yorkshire, England, being finally completed in March, 1860, at Leamington. Hawthorne is said to have based some of the characters of the tale upon certain acquaintances in real life. He certainly obtained some suggestions for the situation of Miriam, from the story of Beatrice Cenci. The romance was published in England under the title of Transformation, a shortened form of the title originally proposed, The Transformation of the Faun. Hawthorne was quick to see the possibilities of fun and pathos in the conception of a real mingling of fauns with men, together with the picturesqueness that might be given to their "pretty, hairy ears" and queer moral instincts in a romance of human life.

Marcel'Ius, Marcus Claudius, a famous Roman general, came of a plebeian family.

In his first consulship (222 B. C.) he defeated a part oi the Gauls and slew their king with his own hand. In the second Punic war he took command after the defeat at Cannae and checked the victorious Hannibal at Nola in 216. Two years later, as consul for the second time, he blockaded Syracuse, and, helped by famine, pestilence and the treachery of the Spanish allies of the Syracusans, he entered, the city in 212, and soon conquered all Sicily. In his fifth c^n-sulship (208 B. C.) he fell in a skirmish against Hannibal, near Venusia, Apulia.

March, the third month of the year and the first in the Roman calendar, has 31 days. It was the first month in England till the change of style in 1752. Its last three days were once supposed to have been borrowed from April, and, according to an old proverb, they are always stormy. March is named after the Roman god, Mars.

March, Francis Andrew, an American philologist and scholar, was born at Mill-bury, Mass., Oct. 25, 1825. He graduated at Amherst College in 1845, where he was tutor for two years. After studying law and teaching for three years, he became instructor at Lafayette College, where he has since taught, from 1858 being professor of the English language and comparative philosophy. Professor March ranks as one of the first American philologists. He has published An Anglo-Saxon Grammar, A Method of Philological Study of the English Language and A Thesaurus of the English Language jointly with F. A. March, Jr.

Mar'chand', Hon. Felix Q., born in Quebec in 1832, was admitted a notary in 1855. He founded and for several years edited Le Franco-Canadien, and held from the government of France the decoration of officer of public instruction. He was the author of several dramatic pieces in prose and verse. He was provincial secretary in 1878, commissioner of crown-lands in 1879, speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1887, and became premier in 1897, accepting the portfolio of treasurer. But few Canadians in like degree have been as successful in literary pursuits and in public affairs as well. He died in 1900.

Marchantia (mdr-kan'ti-d), a genus of plauts belonging to the liverworts, whose species have prostrate and thick thallus bodies, which put out rhizoids from the under surface, and are green on the upper surface. Small cups (cupules) also are borne on the upper surface, which contain numerous disklike gemmae for vegetative propagation. Each thallus body also sends up a conspicuous vertical branch, on the summit of which is a disk bearing the sex-organs. * The disk with scalloped edge bears the male organs (antheridia), while the star-shaped disks bear the. female organs (archegonia). The most common species is M. polymorpha, abundant on damp ground