ANI 



AM 



motion, and the planets have an angular 

 motion about the sun. The angular mo- 

 tions of revolving bodies, as of the pla- 

 nets about the sun, are reciprocally pro- 

 portional to their periodic times ; and 

 they are also as their real or absolute mo- 

 tions directly, and as their radii of motion 

 inversely. 



Angular motion is also composed of a 

 right-lined and circular motion, or in 

 which the moveable body slides and re- 

 volves at the same time : such is the mo- 

 tion of a coach-wheel. 



ANGURIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Monoecia Diandria class and order ; calyx 

 five-cleft ; corolla five-petalled ; pome in- 

 ferior, two-celled, many-seeded. 



ANHYDRILE, in mineralogy, one of 



e sulphate family, found at Sak on the 

 Neckar, in Wirtemberg. Colour smalt 

 blue, which passes into a milk white. 

 Massive : not very brittle. Specific gra- 

 vity 2.94. It differs from cube spar in co- 

 lour, fracture, shape of fragments, and in 

 having a higher specific gravity. 



ANIGOZANTHUS, in botany, a genus 

 of the Hexandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der : corolla six parted, with unequal in- 

 curved segments : staminainserted in the 

 throat of the corolla: capsule three-celled, 

 many -seeded. There is only a single spe- 

 cies; a native of New Holland. The stem 

 is leafy, covered at the top with reddish 

 hairs, leaves linear: flowers umbelled : 

 corolla clothed with reddish hairs. 



ANIMAL, in natural history, an orga- 

 nised and living body, endowed with 

 the powers of sensation, and of spontane- 

 ous loco-motion. Some have defined ani- 

 mals, from their loco-motion, as being 

 capable of shifting from place to place, 

 whereas plants adhere to the same sub- 

 ject. This property they assume, as the 

 great characteristic by which animals may 

 be distinguished from the other orders of 

 beings. On this principle, however, oys- 

 ters, barnacles, and many zoophytes, 

 would be almost excluded from the class 

 of animals, inasmuch as they usually ad- 

 here or grow to rocks, &c. and yet it is 

 certain that these creatures are real ani- 

 mals. But loco-motion alone is not suffi- 

 cient to constitute the generic difference 

 of animals ; nor, indeed, does it sufficient- 

 ly distinguish an animal from a plant. 

 Many instances are produced in which 

 plants manifest loco-motive power. This 

 is the case with those denominated sensi- 

 tive plants, many of which, upon the 

 slightest touch, shrink back and fold up 

 their leaves ; as the snail in the slightest 

 touch retires into its shell. There are 



some, on which if a fly perches, instantly 

 close and crush the insect to death 

 Plants also change their position and form 

 in different circumstances and seasons -. 

 they take advantage of good weather, and 

 guard themselves against bad weather ; 

 they open their leaves and flowers in the 

 day, and close them at night ; some close 

 before sun-set, and some after; some 

 open to receive rain, and some close to 

 avoid it ; some follow the sun, and some 

 turn from it; the leaves of some plants 

 are in constant motion during the day, 

 and at night they sink to a kind of rest 

 or sleep. It has also been observed, that 

 a plant has a power of directing its roots 

 for procuring food ; and that it has a fa- 

 culty of recovering its natural position 

 after it has been forced from it. A hop- 

 plant, for instance, in twisting round a 

 pole, directs its course from south to 

 west, as the sun does; if it be tied in the 

 opposite direction it dies ; but if it be left 

 loose in this direction, it will regain its 

 natural course in a single night A ho- 

 neysuckle proceeds in a certain direc- 

 tion, till it be too long to sustain itself; 

 it then acquires strength by shooting into 

 a spiral form ; and if it meet with ano- 

 ther plant of the same kind, both these 

 coalesce for mutual support, one twisting 

 to the right and the other to the left. 

 There are other instances in which plants 

 manifest a faculty of loco-motion; and, 

 perhaps, in almost as eminent a degree 

 as some animals. Oysters, e. g. are fixed 

 to one place as much as plants, nor have 

 they any power of motion, besides that of 

 opening xnd shutting their shells; nor do 

 they seem, in this respect, to have any 

 superiority, with regard to the powers of 

 motion, to the sensitive plant, and others 

 of a similar kind. In order, therefore, to 

 form a complete and satisfactory distinc- 

 tion between animals and vegetables, as 

 well as minerals, it is necessary to com- 

 bine with spontaneous loco-motion, which 

 they unquestionably possess in a more 

 perfect degree than plants, the powers 

 of sensation. These seem to be unexcep- 

 tionably distinguishing and characteristic. 

 However, M. BufFon, after allowing that, 

 although progressive motion constitute a 

 perceptible difference between an animal 

 and a vegetable, this distinction is neither 

 general nor essential, proceeds to state, 

 that se nsation more essentially distingu ish - 

 es animals from vegetables. But he adds, 

 that this distinction is neither sufficiently 

 general nor decided. If sensation, he says, 

 implied no more than motion consequent 

 upon a stroke or impulse, the sensitive 



