i Sii A M B 



JEstiva'lcs, (from astas, summer.) Plants which blossom in summer 

 Afo'ra, (from a, w^.iout, and fores, a door.) Having no doors or 



valves. 



Aga'mous, (from a, without, and gamos, marriage.) Plants without 

 any visible stamens or pistils, are by French botanists called aga- 

 mous. 



A'ges of plants. Ephemeral are such as spring up, blossom, and ripen 

 their seed in a few hours or days ; annual live a few months, or one 

 summer. 



biennial, spring up one summer, and die the following. 

 perennial, live an indefinite period. 



Aggregate, (from aggregare, to assemble.) Many springing trorn 

 the same point : this term was at first applied to compound flowers, 

 but there is at present a sevenfold division of aggregate flowers; the 

 aggregate, properly so called. 

 compound, 

 umbellate, 

 cymose, 

 amentaceous, 

 glumose, 

 spadiceous. 



Aggregate flower is erected on peduncles or footstalk, which all have 

 one common receptacle on the stem ; they sometimes have one com- 

 mon calyx, and are sometimes separataly furnished with a calyx. 



Ai'grette. See egret. 



A'la. A Latin word signifying a wing. It is sometimes used to ex- 

 press the angle formed by the stem with the branch or leaf. Linnaeus 

 and some others use the term ala, as the name of a membrane af- 

 fixed to some species of seeds which serves as a wing to raise them 

 into the air, and thus promotes their dispersion. 



A'lcc. The tw r o lateral or side petals of a papilionaceous flower. 



Albu'men. The farinaceous, fleshy, or horny substance, which consti- 

 tutes the chief bulk of monocotyledonous seeds; as wheat, rye, &c. 



Alburnum, (from albus, white.) The soft white substance, which in 

 trees is found between the liber, or inner bark, and the wood, and be- 

 coming solid, in progress of time is converted into wood. From its 

 colour and comparative softness, it has been styled the fat of trees. 

 It is called the sap wood, and is formed by a deposite of the cambium 

 or descending sap ; in one year it becomes wood; and a new layei 

 of alburnum is again formed by the descent of the cambium. 



Al'gce.. Flags; these by Linnoeus comprise the plants of the order 

 Hepatica and Lichenes. 



Al'pine. Growing naturally on high mountains. 



Alter'nate. Branches, leaves, flowers, &c. are alternate, when begin- 

 ning at different distances on the stem ; opposite, is when they com 

 mence at the same distances, and base stands against base. 



Alter' natcly pinnate leaf; when the leafets are arranged alternately on 

 each side of the common footstalk or petiole. 



Alve'olate. Having cells which resemble a honey-comb. 



Am'bilus. The outer rim of a frond, receptacle, &c. 



Afment. Flowers collected on chaffy scales, and arranged on a thread 



