grasses, or both, each variety of soil, from swamp to desert, having its characteristic forms.
Polish millet is P. sanguinale; P. frumentaceum, shamalo, a Deccan grass, is probably a native of tropical Africa; P. decompositum is the Australian millet, its grains being made into cakes by the aborigines. P. maximum is the Guinea grass, native of tropical Africa; it is perennial, grows 8 ft. high, and yields abundance of highly nutritious grain. P. spectabile is the coapim of Angola, but has been acclimatized in Brazil and other tropical countries. Other gigantic species 6 or 7 ft. high form the field-crops on the banks of the Amazon. Of species belonging to allied genera, Pennisetum typhoideum, bajree, sometimes also called Egyptian millet or pearl millet, is largely cultivated in tropical Asia, Nubia and Egypt. Species of Paspalum, Eleusine and Milium, are also cultivated as millets. For Indian millet, see Durra.
MILLIGAN, WILLIAM (1821–1892), Scottish theologian, was born on the 15th of March 1821, the eldest son of the Rev. George Milligan and his wife Janet Fraser. He was educated at the High School, Edinburgh, and, from the age of fourteen, at the university of St Andrews, where he graduated in 1839. In 1843 at the disruption he took the side of those who remained in the Establishment, and in 1844 became minister of Cameron in Fifeshire. In 1845, his health having given way, he went to Germany, and studied at the university of Halle. After his return to Scotland and his resumption of his clerical duties he began to write articles on Biblical and critical subjects for various reviews. This led to his appointment in 1860 to the professorship of Biblical criticism in the university of Aberdeen. In 1870 he was appointed one of the committee for the revision of the translation of the New Testament. His fervent piety, and his wide interest in educational and social questions, extended his influence far beyond the circle of theologians. His contributions to periodical literature for many years were numerous and valuable; but his reputation chiefly rests on his works on the Resurrection (1890) and Ascension of our Lord (1892), his Baird lectures (1886) on the Revelation of St John, and his Discussions (1893) on that book. All these volumes are distinguished by great learning and acuteness, as well as by breadth and originality of view. He died on the 11th of December 1892.
MILLINER, originally a dealer in goods from the city of Milan in Italy, whence the name. Such goods were chiefly steel work, including. cutlery, needles, also arms and armour and textile fabrics, ribbons, gloves and “Milan bonnets.” The “milliners” of London, though never formed into a Livery Company seem to have been associated with the “Cappers and Hurers,” which later were amalgamated with the “Haberdashers” (q.v.). Minsheu’s derivation of the word from mille, thousand (“as having a thousand small wares to sell”), though a typical instance of guessing etymologies, shows the miscellaneous character of their trade in the 16th and 17th centuries. The modern use of the word is confined chiefly to one who makes and sells bonnets and hats for women; but articles of “millinery” include ribbons, laces, &c., usually retailed by haberdashers.
MILLIPEDE, the popular name of the best known members of a group of the Arthropoda, scientifically known as Diplopoda, and formerly united with the Chilopoda (see Centipede), the Pauropoda and the Symphyla as an order of the class Myriapoda. This classification, however, has of late years been abandoned on account of the recognition of closer affinity between the Chilopoda (centipedes) and the Hexapoda (insects) than between the Chilopoda and Diplopoda. By modern writers the above mentioned groups of “tracheate” Arthropoda are either regarded as independent classes of this phylum Arthropoda, or associated in two superclasses, the Opisthogonea or Opisthogoneata for the Chilopoda and Hexapoda; and the Prosogonea or Prosogoneata for the Diplopoda, Pauropoda and Symphyla. The structural character upon which these superclasses are based is the position of the generative apertures which open anteriorly in the Prosogonea and posteriorly in the Opisthogonea. Although the Pauropoda and Symphyla are not, strictly speaking, Diplopoda, these three groups of prosogoneate arthropods are here for convenience considered together.
CLASS DIPLOPODA.
Structure.—The anterior extremity is provided with a distinct head which by its general form and the nature of its appendages is as sharply marked off from the body as is the case in the Hexapoda. It always bears at least three pairs of appendages, the eyes when present and, in the Oniscomorpha a peculiar sense organ. The inferior edge of the head plate overhangs the mouth and is termed the labrum. The exoskeleton of a typical somite consists of the following elements: a dorsal plate, a ventral plate, and a pleural plate on each side. To the external margin of the ventral plate or sternum is articulated a pair of legs and between the leg and the pleural plate is situated the spiracle of the tracheal system. But the segmentation of the Diplopoda presents two marked peculiarities. The first is the fact that, with the exception of a few of the anterior leg-bearing segments and perhaps one or two of those at the posterior end of the body, a single dorsal plate or tergum with its pleural plates overlies two sternal plates, two pairs of legs and two pairs of spiracles. Hence the segments appear to be double and to be furnished with twice as many legs as is normal in the Arthropoda—a peculiarity which has suggested the term “Diplopod” or “double-footed,” for this group. It is generally believed that each tergal plate results from the coalescence of the terga of two originally distinct adjoining segments; but the same effect would be produced by the enlargement of one of a pair of terga and the complete excalation of the other. It is in favour of the latter view that there is only a single pair, and not two pairs, of stink-glands on each so-called double tergal plate. Unfortunately the history of the development of the segments does not clear up the difficulty since the terga of the double segments are single from the first, and no evidence either of fusion or excalation is supplied. The second of the two peculiarities above-mentioned is the great development of the tergal sclerite as compared with the sternal. Only very rarely (i.e. in Platydesmus) is there a broad sternal area. In the majority of cases the lateral edges of the tergum are bent downwards and inwards towards the mid ventral line; the sternum at the same time is so much reduced that the basal segments of the legs of opposite sides are almost in contact. The pleural plate on each side usually disappears either by suppression or by fusion with the tergum. The sterna with their attached legs often remain free. But quite commonly the coalescence of the skeletal elements is carried to such an extreme that each segment is a solid ring with two pairs of movable appendages. The last segment is differently constructed from the others. It is always limbless, and usually consists of a complete tergal ring, a single sternal plate, and a pair of movable anal valves which are normally closed, but are capable of being opened for the passage of faeces. These anal valves are possibly the homologues of the plural scutes of a normal segment. The appendages are modified