Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/121

 MYSIA MYSOEE 113 PERIWINKLE.) The candleberry or wax myrtle is myrica cerifera. (See BATBEEEY.) Sand myrtle is leiophyllum uxifolium, a pretty low shrub of the heath family, found in the pine barrens of New Jersey and southward. Crape myrtle is the common name for Lagerstrcemia Indica, a shrub largely planted for ornament in Virginia and southward. It does not belong to the myrtles proper, but to the loosestrife family (lythracecv). It is a much-branched shrub, 6 to 10 ft. or more high, with smooth, oval, opposite leaves, and large panicles of showy flowers; the petals are upon slender claws, and are waved and crimped in such a manner as to give them an exceedingly beauti- ful appearance, and to suggest the fabric known as crape ; the stamens, which are in long silky tufts, add to the beauty of the flowers. The usual color of the flowers is a pale rose, but recently a white and several very dark- colored varieties have been introduced. The plant is a natiye of the East Indies, and the genus was named in honor of Lagerstrom, a Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia Indica). Swedish naturalist. In northern localities it may be grown as a tub plant with a treatment like that of the oleander. t MYSIA, in ancient geography, a N". W. divi- sion of Asia Minor, the boundaries of which greatly varied at different periods. In the time of the early Roman emperors it was bounded N. by the Propontis (sea of Marmora), N. E. in part by the Bithynian Olympus, S. E. by Phrygia, S. by Lydia, W. by the ^Egean, and N". W. by the Hellespont (strait of Dardanelles). It thus included, among other territories, those of Troas in the northwest, and Teuthrania (which included Pergamus), as well as the Grecian coast land of ^Eolis, in the southwest. Mysia was for the most part mountainous, the principal ranges within its boundaries being Mt. Ida in Troas, Mt. Temnus, which extended from the former to the borders of Phrygia, dividing the country into two unequal parts, and Mt. Olympus on the northeastern or Bithynian border. Of the principal rivers, the Caicus and Evenus flowed into the Elaitic gulf, on the S. "W. corner; the Satniois into the ^Egean, N. of Cape Lectum; the Scamander and Simois, renowned in Trojan legends, into the Hellespont, near Cape Sigeum ; the Grani- cus, on the banks of which Alexander the Great achieved his first victory over the Per- sians (334 B. 0.), the ^Esepus, Tarsius, Maces- tus, and Rhyndacus, into the Propontis. The largest gulf was that of Adramyttium (now Adramyti) on the ^Egean, opposite the island of Lesbos. Mysia is more renowned in legen- dary traditions than in history, the chief in- terest attaching to the territories of Troas, Per- gamus, and the .ZEolian confederacy. Some suppose the Mysians to have been of Thracian race and immigrants from the countries south of the Danube afterward known as Moesia, and others make them offshoots of the Lydians. Egyptologists think they can recognize their name in inscriptions of very ancient date. Having been successively under the dominion of Croesus, the Persian kings, Alexander of Macedon, his general Lysimachus, and the Se- Ieucida3, Mysia was assigned by the Romans, after their victory over Antiochus the Great (190), to the new kingdom of Pergamus, which had previously been formed from one of its parts, and with the whole of that kingdom was bequeathed to the Roman republic by King Attalus III., thus becoming a part of the pro- consular province of Asia (133). MYSORE. I. A native state of India, under British protection, situated between lat. 11 30' and 15 N. and Ion. 74 45' and 78 45' E., and surrounded on all sides by the province of Ma- dras, except where bordered by Coorg on the west and Bombay on the north ; area, 27,717 sq. m., of which about 9,000 are under cultiva- tion; pop. in 1872, 5,055,412. The state com- prises three divisions for governmental pur- poses, ISTandidroog, Ashtagram, and Nagar ; the chief towns are Bangalore, Mysore, and Se- ringapatam. The country consists of an inte- rior table land elevated from 2,000 to 3,000 ft. above the sea, rising westward to the Western Ghauts, which separate it from the seaboard. The principal rivers are the Cavery, Tungabu- dra, and the N. and S. Pennar. There are no natural lakes, but many large tanks and arti- ficial reservoirs in the high grounds. The level of the table land is interrupted in places by large masses of granite, rounded in their out- lines, standing singly or in clusters. The cli-