More than one of these 7 encyclopedias carries each of the following subjects — but every one of them treats it in a sentence or two and then moves on. They are gathered here so the different accounts can sit side by side.
Morgue
Aiton's Encyclopedia: morg, a public building or place in which the bodies of unknown persons are kept by the coroner for identification. One of the most celebrated is the Morgue of Paris. It is situated on an island in the Seine. The principal room resembles a huge show window with walls of plate glass. The bodies of unknown persons recovered from the river, or found in hovels or at scenes of crimes, are displayed for a required number of days. They lie on marble slabs kept cool by a flow of water. The sight is a ghastly one, but a crowd of poorly clad spectators is seldom lacking. About 750 bodies a year are exhibited, one-seventh being those of women.
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a place where the bodies der that they may be recognized and claimed by their friends; a dead house. temple of Jerusalem was built. MORIAH (-ri- ), the hill on which the family Guettardindæ. The bark of M.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Morning Glory
Aiton's Encyclopedia: a well known flowering plant. There are well on to 500 closely related twiners in the entire group. Our beautiful garden morning glories, now advertised by seedsmen, are mostly from Japan. The morning glory is raised easily. Seeds soaked a few hours in warm water before planting have been known to produce flowers in six weeks. The name is derived, of course, from the fact that the flowers, crimson, yellow, blue, violet, purple, pink, rose, and white are at their best in the morning hours. The florists of Japan have taken a deep interest in the development of morning glories. In 1830 a craze for a special sort led to the payment of from $10 to $18 reckoned in our money, for single seeds. Quite a literature of these plants, richly illustrated, exists in the Japanese language. The sweet potato is a prosaic relative.
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a name given to several climbing plants of the convolvulus family, having handsome purple or white, sometimes pink or pale blue, funnel-shaped flowers.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Morpheus
Aiton's Encyclopedia: in Roman mythology, the god of dreams. He was the son of Somnus, god of sleep. The word Morpheus means fashioner or moulder, and the god was supposed to shape or form the dreams which appeared to the sleeper. He is represented in art as a winged child, asleep and holding a vase in one hand and poppies in the other. See Somnus
1000 Classical Characters: A minister of the god Somnus, who imitated very naturally the gestures, words, and manners of mankind. He is sometimes called the god of sleep. He is generally represented as a sleeping child, of great corpulence, with wings. 2026 Editor's Note: In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Morpheus is the son of Somnus (Sleep), not merely a minister. The page's description of him as 'a minister of the god Somnus' misrepresents this parent-child relationship found in classical sources. (Ed: BR 2026-06-30)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: in classical mythology, a minister of the god Somnus, who was wonderfully proficient in imitating the grimaces, gestures, words and manners of mankind. He is sometimes called the god of sleep.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and 1000 Classical Characters and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Mors
Aiton's Encyclopedia: in Roman mythology, the god of death. He was a son of Nox, night, and twin brother of Somnus, sleep. Another account makes him the son of Tellus, the earth, and Tartarus, and states that it was his duty to introduce at some time every human being to his parents.
Collier's New Encyclopedia: in Roman mythology, the god of death.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Moschus
1000 Classical Characters: A Greek bucolic poet in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. His eclogues are characterized by sweetness and elegance, and are said to be equal in merit to the productions of Theocritus . Mosela (Mosel, Moselle). A river in Gallia Belgica, rising in Mount Vogesus, and falling into the Rhine at Confluentes (Coblenz). 2026 Editor's Note: While this text places Moschus in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus, he actually flourished later, around 150 BC. A student of the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, he was born in Syracuse and is remembered as a significant bucolic poet. Although he was also known for his grammatical scholarship, none of those specific works have survived to the modern era. (Ed: BR 2026-07-01)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a Greek bucolic poet, usually designated of Syracuse in Sicily; he Emperor Nicholas II. and Empress flourished about 150 b. c., and wrote in a style of almost painfully finished elegance an epitaph on Bion, a couple of short epics, and minor poems.
Covered by 1000 Classical Characters and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Mound Birds
Aiton's Encyclopedia: peculiar jungle-fowls of Australia. They are about as large as an ordinary barnyard fowl. They have stout legs and large feet. They inhabit the bush and scrub, usually near water, and go in pairs and in flocks. The plumage is dull. Their flight is slow and heavy. The popular name has reference to a habit of heaping up mounds of earth and decaying vegetable matter in which to bury their eggs. These heaps are made usually in the shade of trees to preserve their moisture. They are so large that they were mistaken at first for native burial mounds. The female buries her eggs deep down in the muck, depending, it is claimed, on the heat of fermentation, like that of a hotbed or incubator, to hatch the young. The chicks appear full-feathered, like young partridges, ready to run or fly.
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a family of gallinaceous birds remarkable for the large mounds which they build as incubators for the eggs. They are natives of Australasia and of the islands in the Eastern Archipelago and Pacific. The Australian megapodes (Megapodius tumulus), about the size of common fowls, build mounds of leaves, vegetable refuse, and soil, and add to them year after year till they become immense structures.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Mountain Ash
Aiton's Encyclopedia: a small tree of the pear family. The wood is hard like that of the apple tree. A wealth of white flowers is followed by showy clusters of red berries. The leaves are drooping, pinnate, and of a handsome green. Three species are well known. The American mountain ash is found from Duluth to the Atlantic Ocean. It is hardy and ornamental, and is valued in dooryards. A second species is found in the West. The European mountain ash is known also as the rowan-tree and the quick-beam.
Collier's New Encyclopedia: Pyrus aucuparia, a European tree, 10 to 30 feet high, with pinnate leaves, corymbose compound cymes with cream-white flowers, and scarlet berries with yellow flesh. Wild in woods, on hillsides, chiefly in mountainous districts, and cultivated in gardens. Called also the Rowan tree. Also, Pyrus (sorbus) americana, an American tree, bearing beautiful red berries. MOUNTAIN LION. See PUMA.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia