The tulip tree, _Liriodendron tulipifera_, a native of North America,
frequently cultivated in England, is also a member of the same family.
It reaches a height of over 100 ft. in a native condition, and as much
as 60 to 80 ft. in England. It resembles the plane tree somewhat in
appearance, but is readily recognized by lobed leaves having the apical
lobe truncated, and by its soft green and yellow tulip-like
flowers--which however are rarely borne on trees under twenty years of
age.
For a description of the principal species of magnolia under
cultivation see J. Weathers, _Practical Guide to Garden Plants_, pp.
174 seq., and for a detailed account of the American species see C. S.
Sargent, _Silva of North America_, vol. i.
MAGNUS, HEINRICH GUSTAV (1802-1870), German chemist and physicist, was
born at Berlin on the 2nd of May 1802. His father was a wealthy
merchant; and of his five brothers one, Eduard (1799-1872), became a
celebrated painter. After studying at Berlin, he went to Stockholm to
work under Berzelius, and later to Paris, where he studied for a while
under Gay-Lussac and Thénard. In 1831 he returned to Berlin as lecturer
on technology and physics at the university. As a teacher his success
was rapid and extraordinary. His lucid style and the perfection of his
experimental demonstrations drew to his lectures a crowd of enthusiastic
scholars, on whom he impressed the importance of applied science by
conducting them round the factories and workshops of the city; and he
further found time to hold weekly "colloquies" on physical questions at
his house with a small circle of young students. From 1827 to 1833 he
was occupied mainly with chemical researches, which resulted in the
discovery of the first of the platino-ammonium compounds ("Magnus's
green salt" is PtCl2, 2NH3), of sulphovinic, ethionic and isethionic
acids and their salts, and, in conjunction with C. F. Ammermüller, of
periodic acid. Among other subjects at which he subsequently worked were
the absorption of gases in blood (1837-1845), the expansion of gases by
heat (1841-1844), the vapour pressures of water and various solutions
(1844-1854), thermo-electricity (1851), electrolysis (1856), induction
of currents (1858-1861), conduction of heat in gases (1860), and
polarization of heat (1866-1868). From 1861 onwards he devoted much
attention to the question of diathermancy in gases and vapours,
especially to the behaviour in this respect of dry and moist air, and to
the thermal effects produced by the condensation of moisture on solid
surfaces.
In 1834 Magnus was elected extraordinary, and in 1845 ordinary professor
at Berlin. He was three times elected dean of the faculty, in 1847, 1858
and 1863; and in 1861, rector magnificus. His great reputation led to
his being entrusted by the government with several missions; in 1865 he
represented Prussia in the conference called at Frankfort to introduce a
uniform metric system of weights and measures into Germany. For
forty-five years his labour was incessant; his first memoir was
published in 1825 when he was yet a student; his last appeared shortly
after his death on the 4th of April 1870. He married in 1840 Bertha
Humblot, of a French Huguenot family settled in Berlin, by whom he left
a son and two daughters.
See _Allgemeine deutsche Biog._ The Royal Society's _Catalogue_
enumerates 84 papers by Magnus, most of which originally appeared in
_Poggendorff's Annalen_.
MAGNY, CLAUDE DRIGON, MARQUIS DE (1797-1879), French heraldic writer,
was born in Paris. After being employed for some time in the postal
service, he devoted himself to the study of heraldry and genealogy, his
work in this direction being rewarded by Pope Gregory XVI. with a
marquisate. He founded a French college of heraldry, and wrote several
works on heraldry and genealogy, of which the most important were
_Archives nobiliaires universelles_ (1843) and _Livre d'or de la
noblesse de France_ (1844-1852). His two sons, Edouard Drigon and
Achille Ludovice Drigon, respectively comte and vicomte de Magny, also
wrote several works on heraldry.
MAGO, the name of several Carthaginians, (1) The reputed founder of the
military power of Carthage, fl. 550-500 B.C. (Justin xviii. 7, xix. i).
(2) The youngest of the three sons of Hamilcar Barca. He accompanied
Hannibal into Italy, and held important commands in the great victories
of the first three years. After the battle of Cannae (216 B.C.) he
sailed to Carthage to report the successes gained. He was about to
return to Italy with strong reinforcements for Hannibal, when the
government ordered him to go to the aid of his other brother, Hasdrubal,
who was hard pressed in Spain. He carried on the war there with varying
success in concert with the two Hasdrubals until, in 209, his brother
marched into Italy to help Hannibal. Mago remained in Spain with
Hasdrubal, the son of Gisco. In 207 he was defeated by M. Junius
Silanus, and in 206 the combined forces of Mago and Hasdrubal were
scattered by Scipio Africanus in the decisive battle of Silpia. Mago
maintained himself for some time in Gades, but afterwards received
orders to carry the war into Liguria. He wintered in the Balearic Isles,
where the harbour Portus Magonis (Port Mahon) still bears his name.
Early in 204 he landed in Liguria, where he maintained a desultory
warfare till in 203 he was defeated in Cisalpine Gaul by the Roman
forces. Shortly afterwards he was ordered to return to Carthage, but on
the voyage home he died of wounds received in battle.
See Polybius iii.; Livy xxi.-xxiii.; xxviii., chs. 23-37; xxix., xxx.;
Appian, _Hispanica_, 25-37; T. Friedrich, _Biographie des Barkiden
Mago_; H. Lehmann, _Der Angriff der drei Barkiden auf Italien_
(Leipzig, 1905); and further J. P. Mahaffy, in _Hermathena_, vii.
29-36 (1890).
(3) The name of Mago is also attached to a great work on agriculture
which was brought to Rome and translated by order of the senate after
the destruction of Carthage. The book was regarded as a standard
authority, and is often referred to by later writers.
See Pliny, _Nat. Hist_, xviii. 5; Columella, i. 1; Cicero, _De
oratore_, i. 58.
MAGPIE, or simply PIE (Fr. _pie_), the prefix being the abbreviated form
of a human name (Margaret[1]), a bird once common throughout Great
Britain, though now nearly everywhere scarce. Its pilfering habits have
led to this result, yet the injuries it causes are exaggerated by common
report; and in many countries of Europe it is still the tolerated or
even the cherished neighbour of every farmer, as it formerly was in
England if not in Scotland also. It did not exist in Ireland in 1617,
when Fynes Morison wrote his _Itinerary_, but it had appeared there
within a hundred years later, when Swift mentions its occurrences in his
_Journal to Stella_, 9th July 1711. It is now common enough in that
country, and there is a widespread but unfounded belief that it was
introduced by the English out of spite. It is a species that when not
molested is extending its range, as J. Wolley ascertained in Lapland,
where within the last century it has been gradually pushing its way
along the coast and into the interior from one fishing-station or
settler's house to the next, as the country has been peopled.
Since the persecution to which the pie has been subjected in Great
Britain, its habits have altered greatly. It is no longer the merry,
saucy hanger-on of the homestead, but is become the suspicious thief,
shunning the gaze of man, and knowing that danger may lurk in every
bush. Hence opportunities of observing it fall to the lot of few, and
most persons know it only as a curtailed captive in a wicker cage, where
its vivacity and natural beauty are lessened or wholly lost. At large
few European birds possess greater beauty, the pure white of its
scapulars and inner web of the flight-feathers contrasting vividly with
the deep glossy black on the rest of its body and wings, while its long
tail is lustrous with green, bronze, and purple reflections. The pie's
nest is a wonderfully ingenious structure, placed either in high trees
or low bushes, and so massively built that it will stand for years. Its
foundation consists of stout sticks, turf and clay, wrought into a deep,
hollow cup, plastered with earth, and lined with fibres; but around this
is erected a firmly interwoven, basket-like outwork of thorny sticks,
forming a dome over the nest, and leaving but a single hole in the side
for entrance and exit, so that the whole structure is rendered almost
impregnable. Herein are laid from six to nine eggs, of a pale
bluish-green freckled with brown and blotched with ash-colour.
Superstition as to the appearance of the pie still survives even among
many educated persons, and there are several versions of a rhyming adage
as to the various turns of luck which its presenting itself, either
alone or in company with others, is supposed to betoken, though all
agree that the sight of a single pie presages sorrow.
The pie belongs to the same family of birds as the crow, and is the
_Corvus pica_ of Linnaeus, the _Pica caudata_, _P. melanoleuca_, or _P.
rustica_ of modern ornithologists, who have recognized it as forming a
distinct genus, but the number of species thereto belonging has been a
fruitful source of discussion. Examples from the south of Spain differ
slightly from those inhabiting the rest of Europe, and in some points
more resemble the _P. mauritanica_ of north-western Africa; but that
species has a patch of bare skin of a fine blue colour behind the eye,
and much shorter wings. No fewer than five species have been
discriminated from various parts of Asia, extending to Japan; but only
one of them, the _P. leucoptera_ of Turkestan and Tibet, has of late
been admitted as valid. In the west of North America, and in some of its
islands, a pie is found which extends to the upper valleys of the
Missouri and the Yellowstone, and has long been thought entitled to
specific distinction as _P. hudsonia_; but its claim thereto is now
disallowed by some of the best ornithologists of the United States, and
it can hardly be deemed even a geographical variety of the Old-World
form. In California, however, there is a permanent race if not a good
species, _P. nuttalli_, easily distinguishable by its yellow bill and
the bare yellow skin round its eyes; on two occasions in the year 1867 a
bird apparently similar was observed in Great Britain (_Zoologist_, ser.
2, pp. 706, 1016). (A. N.)