AG A 



32 



AGR 



house evergreen shrub 

 Loam, peat, and sand. 



AGATH/RA. Two species. Green- 

 house everfjreen shrubs. Young cut- 

 tinpp. Lf>:im and peat. 



ACA'I'IIOPHYLLUM aromaticum. 

 Madagascar nutmeg. Stove evergreen 

 tree. Cuttings. Peat or rich loam. 



AGATHOSMA. Twenty-two spe- 

 cies. Green-houf-e evergreen shrubs. 

 Cuttings. Peat and loam. 



A(;ATHYIISUS. Seven species. 



Cuttings. I arts and sciences." It is " tlie basis of 

 j all other arts, and in all countries co- 

 eval with the first dawn of civilization. 

 Without agriculture, mankind would be 

 savages, lliinly scattered through inler- 

 minal)le forests, with no other habita- 

 tions than caverns, hollow trees or huts, 

 more rude and inconvenient than the 

 most ordinary hovel or cattle-shed of 

 the modern cultivator. It is the most 

 universal as well as the most ancient of 

 the arts, and requires the greatest num- 



visions. Common soil. 



AGATI. Two species. Stove ever- 



Hardy herbaceous. Cuttings and di- j her of operators. It employs seven 



eighths of the population of almost 

 every civilized community. — Agricul- 

 green trees. Cuttings. Peat and loam, ture is not only indispensable tonation- 

 AOAVK. Aloe. Nineteen species, al prosperity, but is eminently condu- 

 Chiefly stove plants. Suckers. Rich cive to the welfare of those who are 

 loam. " The name is altered from engaged in it. It gives health to the 

 ctyrtw.t., admirable, which this genus may body, energy to the mind, is fiivourable 

 well be said to be, considering its ap- to virtuous and temperate habits, and to 

 pearance, its size, and the beauty of its knowledge and purity of moral charac- 

 flowers. In mythology, Agave is the ter, which are the pillars of good gov- 

 name of one of the Nereids. A. america- ernmentand the true support ofnation- 

 «a is a popularsucculent throughout Eu- ' al independence. — Witii regard to the 

 rope. It grows wild or is acclimated in i history of agriculture, we must confine 

 Sicily, the south of Spain, and Italy, and I ourselves to slight sketches. The first 

 is much used in the latter country, plant- j mention of agriculture is found in the 

 ed in vases as an ornament to piers, pa- : writings of Moses. From them we learn 

 rapets, and about houses. About Milan j that Cain was a ' tiller of the ground,' 

 and other towns in Lombardy, where it that Abel sacrificed the 'firstlings of 

 will not endure the winter, they use i his flock,' and that Noah 'began to be 

 imitations of copper so well formed and! a husbandman, and planted a vineyard.' 



painted, as to be readily mistaken for 

 the original. In France and Germany 

 it is still \ery common ; and. in this 

 country formerly used to be the regular 

 companion of the orange, myrtle, and 

 pomegranate, then our principal green- 

 house plants. An idea used to prevail 

 that the American Aloe only flowered 

 once in a hundred years; but, inde- 

 pendently of this unnatural application 

 of time to the inflorescence, it has long 

 been known to flower sooner or later 

 according to the culture bestowed on 

 it.= ' — Encyc. Plants. 



The Chinese, Japanese, Chaldeans, 

 Egyptians and Phoenicians appear to 

 have held husbandry in high estimation. 

 The Egyptians were so sensible of its 

 blessings, that they ascribed its inven- 

 tion to superhuman agency, and even 

 carried their gratitude to such an ab- 

 surd excess as to worship the ox, for his 

 services as a labourer. The C;irthagin- 

 ians carried the art of agriculture to a 

 higher degree than other nations, their 

 cotemporaries. Mago, one of their 

 most famous generals, wrote no less 

 than twenty-eight books on agricultural 



AGERATUM. Six species. Chiefly : topics, which, according to Columella, 

 hardy annuals. Seed. Light rich soil. ' were translated into Latin by an express 



AGNOSTUS sinuata. Green-house : decree of the Roman senate. — Hesiod, 

 evergreen tree. Cuttings. Sandy peat. ' a Greek writer, supposed to be cotem- 



AGRJCULTURE, as compared to i porary with Homer, wrote a poem on 

 Horticulture, is the culture and man- agriculture, entitled JVccks and Days, 

 Rgement of certain plants and animals j which was so denominated because hus- 

 for the food and service of man : it is, as i bandry requires an exact observance of 

 Marshall observes, "a subject which, I times and seasons. Other Greek writ- 

 viewed in all its branches, and to their ers wrote on rural economy, and Xeno- 

 fullest extent, is not only the most im- phnn among the number, but their 

 portant and the most diificult in rural | works have been lost in the lapse of 

 economies, but in the circle of human ; ages. — The implements of Grecian agri- 



