149 



AMMONITES. 



AMOMUM. 



150 



The accompanying cuts, which are copied from De Blainville, will 

 not only give the reader some idea of the shape of the aperture, but 

 also of the external appearance of the shell, while the following, from 

 Dr. Buckland's ' Bridgewater Treatise,' will convey a notion of the 

 coneanierations in some of the species. An internal view of a very 

 simple form of these and of the siphon or pipe will be seen in the out 

 of Ammoititts obtusits. 



Ammonites nudosus. 



Geological Distribution. Professor Phillips, in his ' Guide to 

 Geology," published in 1834, since which time numerous additions 

 have been made, thus distributes the Ammonites among the different 

 formations. 



SUB-GENERA OF AMMONITES. 



Total, 223 species. 



Geographical Ihstribution. As the Ammonites were evidently prin- 

 cipal agents for keeping within bounds the mollusks, &c., the crusta- 

 ceans, and perhaps fishes of the periods prior to the Chalk Formation, 

 and belonging to the latter epoch, we should expect to find them 

 widely distributed. Accordingly, they occur in Europe, Asia, and 

 America in strata apparently of the same date. In some instances, 

 the genera and even the species are identical. Dr. Gerard found hi 

 the Himalaya Mountains, at an elevation of 16,000 feet, Ammonite* 

 Walcottii and Ammonites communii, fossils that are found in the Lias of 

 Lyme Regis. M. M(Snard met with one in the Maritime Alps at an 

 elevation of 1500 toises. Their numbers must have been great. 

 M. Dufresne informed Lamarck that the road from Auxerre to Avalon 

 in Burgundy was absolutely paved with them. The individual 

 agency too of some of these carnivorous instruments for preserving 

 the balance of marine animal power must have been of no small 

 importance. Lamarck says that he has seen Ammonites of two feet 

 (French) hi diameter. Mr. James Sowerby and Dr. Mantell record 

 Ammonites hi the Chalk with a diameter of three feet ; and Dr. Buck- 

 land states that Sir T. Harvey and Mr. Keith measured Ammonites hi 

 the Chalk near Margate which exceeded four feet in diameter ; and 

 this in cases where the diameter could have been in a very small 

 degree enlarged by pressure. 



AMOIBITE, in Mineralogy, a variety of Arsenical Nickel, containing* 

 from 40 to 50 per cent, of nickel and 14 per cent, of sulphur. 



AMO'MUM, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Xiiii/ilitracete. It consists of species having white flowers collected 

 hi close head, which arise from the base of the leaves, and only 

 just raise themselves above the ground ; the lower lip of the flower 

 in very broad and large compared with the others, and the other has 

 a two-lobed crest. The needs are contained in a loose skin, and are 

 d in a rather tough capsule, which is separated into three 

 cells by as many membranous partitions, and finally opens into 

 three valves. The leaves are of a broadly lanceolate or oval figure 

 tapering to the point, and enwrapping the stem like a sort of 

 sheath. 





A. Cardamomum has a root-stock creeping under the surface of the 

 soil like that of the Ginger, but it is smaller. The stems rise 

 obliquely to the height of from two to four feet. The leaves are 

 alternate. Flowers in spikes, seated in lanceolate acute villous 

 searious ash-coloured bracts. The tube of the corolla slender. The 

 anther double, with a large three-lobed concave crest. The fruit a 

 capsule containing roundish angular dotted brown seeds. This plant 

 is a native of the mountainous parts of Java and Sumatra, and is 

 commonly cultivated in the gardens of India. The seeds are aro- 

 matic, and are used by the Malays instead of the true Cardamoms, 

 which are the produce of the Elettaria Cardamomum. [ELETTARIA.] 

 Sir J. E. Smith states that this plant is the Am.om.iim verum of the 

 older botanists. 



Amomum Cardamomum. 



A. anymtifolium is a sharp-leaved species, and a native of marshy 

 ground, in Madagascar. It is cultivated in the Mauritius. It has a 

 deep blood-red calyx, and the outer segment of the corolla is red. 

 The whole plant is aromatic, and the fruit constitutes the Cardamomum 

 majua of the older writers. 



A. oromoticum is a native of the valleys on the eastern frontiers 

 of Bengal. The fruit has similar qualities to those of the 

 true Cardamoms, for which they are often sold to the druggists of 

 India. 



A. Grano-Paraditi has a perennial root-stalk, giving off erect slender 

 stems, 3 feet high. The leaves are numerous and crowded. The 

 capsule is large, 1 4 inch long, and half-an-inch in diameter. It has a 

 very strong aromatic odour and flavour. The seeds have the same 

 properties as the Cardamoms. The plant is a native of Guinea, near 

 Sierra Leone. The fruits are known by the name of Grains of 

 Paradise, and Melligetta or Malagueta Pepper. 



A. yrandijtorum, of Smith, is also a native of Sierra Leone. It has 

 large flowers, and yields seeds, which differ from those of Grains of 

 Paradise in being gray or lead-coloured, much less polished, and 

 possessing a totally different flavour, resembling that of camphor. 

 They may be used for the same purposes as the Cardamoms. 



The Cardamoms of commerce are the capsules, which are gathered 

 as the seeds ripen, are dried in the sun, and are then fit for sale. The 

 small capsules, or Lesser Cardamoms, are the most valuable, [CARJJA- 

 MOMS, in ARTS AND So. Drv.] 



(Lindley, flora Medica.) 



