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MELISSA

Volume 13 · 77 words · 1815 Edition

in fabulous history, a daughter of Melissus king of Crete, who with her sister Almathea fed Jupiter with the milk of goats. She first found out the means of collecting honey; whence it has been fabled that she was changed into a bee, as her name is the Greek word for that insect.

Baum, a genus of plants, belonging to the didynamia class; and in the natural method ranking under the 42d order, Verticillatae. See BOTANY Index.