Melanesia, eleven archipelagoes of crystalline, coralline, and volcanic islands in the W. of Polynesia, all S. of the equator, and inhabited by the Melanesian or dark oceanic race; includes the Fiji, Solomon, Bismarck, and New Hebrides islands.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Melanchthon, Philip * Melba, Nellie