ANTES XULARIA. 



ANTHROPHYLLITE. 





to theorise in the same way upon the bills of nestling birds which are 

 opened to receive food, or their wings which are opened and vibrated 

 rapidly while they receive it. That there is nothing peculiar in this 

 alleged antennal language, so far as the aphides are concerned, any one 

 who chooses may prove by taking a pin or a camel-hair pencil and 

 gently touching the aphis, when it will eject the honey-dew as readily 

 as in consequence of being touched with the antennae of an ant. This 

 we deem to be quite fatal to M. Huber's conclusions. 



(Insect Miscellanies, vol. i v., in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge.) 

 ANTENNCLARIA, a genus of Sertularian Zoophytes. [SKRTV- 



LARIAD.E.] 



A'NTHEMIS is the genus of plants which includes the useful 

 herb Chamomile. It belongs to the order Compcaitte, and is distin- 

 guished by having the scales that surround its flower-heads membranous 

 at the border, like those of a Chrysanthemum, from which genus it, in 

 fact, differs chiefly in the receptacle of the flowers being furnished with 

 little chaffy projections. 



Antlimn* ii'iliilii, or Chamomile, is frequent in a wild state on many 

 of the commons near London, where it adds a peculiar richness of 

 colour and fragrance to the turf. It is a dwarf plant, with finely-cut 

 leaves ; its flower-heads are white in the ray, but deep yellow in the 

 <li.sk. All the parts are intensely bitter, but especially the little yellow 

 flowers of the disk : for this reason the wild blossoms are far more 

 efficacious than those of the cultivated sort, in which there is scarcely 

 any disk, the flowers of the ray having almost entirely usurped their 

 place. Besides the bitter principle for which Chamomile is so cele- 

 brated, it has been found by chemists to contain camphor and tannin, 

 and also a volatile oil of a beautiful blue colour. 



There is another wild plant, called Antkemu Cotula, or Mayweed, 

 which must not be confounded with Chamomile, to which it bears great 

 resemblance : it may be distinguished by its being an erect branching 

 plant, with an exceedingly disagreeable and powerful odour. 



Anthemis tinctoria is used in France by the dyers for the sake of a 

 brilliant yellow tint, which is obtained from it. 



AXTHEIl, in Botany, the upper part of the stamen which contains 

 the pollen-cells, the function of which is to aid in the development of 

 the embryo in the ovule. [STAMEN.] 



A XTHERI'DIA, in Botany, organs found in many of the tribes of 

 Cryptogamic or Flowerless Plants. They have been observed in the 

 Characeae, Horse-Tails, Ferns, Mosses, and Algae, and are supposed to 

 represent the anthers in Phanerogamic or Flowering Plants. In the 

 cells of which they are composed certain moving filaments are observed, 

 which have received the name of Phytozoa or Spermatozoids. Many 

 of these phytozoa move by cilia attached to their surface. For the 

 nature of their functions, development, and forms, see REPRODUC- 

 TION, VEGETABLE. 



ANTHULI'THES (Brongniart). Some Fossil Plants thus designated 

 occur in the Coal-formations of Shropshire and Northumberland. 



A XTHO'PHYLLUM(Schweigger), a Fossil genus of Madrephylliaa, 



[M.U>RF.I"HYU.I(EA.] 



AXTIK J'SIDKRITE, in Mineralogy, an impure silicate of iron. 



A.XTHOSPK KMK.K (from &v6op, flower, and tnrrppa, seed), a tribe 

 of plants resembling Anthospermum (the Amber-Tree), belonging to 

 the natural order Cinckonacefp. It consists of the genera Coprosma, 

 J'liii/lii,(iii/i:i,iiiii,Ambrariu,&nAAnthotsj>ermum. They possess dioecious 

 or hermaphrodite flowers ; a rotate corolla ; styles separating to the 

 base, ending in an elongated hispid or plumose stigma ; the fruit con- 

 gists of 2 indehiscent 1 -seeded mericarps, or nuts ; the albumen of the 

 seed is fleshy. The species are small herbs or shrubs, with opposite 

 or verticillate leaves, and small 1-3-toothed stipules, which are adnate 

 to both sides of the petioles. 



None of the species are used in the arts or medicine ; the tribe is 

 however interesting as forming a link between the opposite-leaved 

 ilacea; and the verticillate Rubiacetr. Although most of the 

 A nthotparmea- have opposite leaves, yet several species of A ntkotperm mn 

 itself, as A. !'> / '/'"/>///i and A. jEthiopicum, have their leaves subver- 

 ticillate. In Phyllii the leaves occur in whorls of three or four. 

 This genus has but a single ipecies, known by the common name 

 of Bastard Hare's-Ear. It may be cultivated, with other species of 

 .the tribe, in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand. 



ANTHOXA'NTHUM, a genus of Grasses, one species of which (A. 

 odoratum) is well known to farmers under the name of the Sweet 

 Venial Grass. It is a small annual plant, bearing its flowers in short 

 heads, which are not very compact, and broader at the bottom than 

 the top. The flowerets of which it is composed are a pale yellowish- 

 green ; each consists of two sharp-pointed smooth glumes, within 

 which are two other dark -brown hairy paleie, each having an awn at 

 rU back ; the stamens are only two in number. This grass is of little 

 importance for its nutritive qualities, but it is much esteemed for the 

 sweet smell of itg leaves, which causes much of the well-known 

 fragrance of new-mown hay. 



A'XTHRACITK, a black, light, mineral substance, resembling 

 coal; so named from &v6pa(, charcoal. It is also called Blind-Co.il. 

 -<? it burns without flame ; and Glance-Coal, from the German 

 wi ml fffttnz (lustre), because it has often a shining surface like graphite 

 or blacklead, as it is improperly called, the substance of which pencils 

 are made, and to which it in vtay closely allied in composition. In 

 tome systems of mineralogy it is divided into massive, slaty, and 



columnar anthracite; but these are mere accidental varieties of 

 structure, and are all of the same chemical composition, when the 



Sweet Vernal Grass (Atitlioxantliam odoratum) . 

 a, a flower-head magnified. &, a floweret more magnified. 



pure anthracite is separated from the matrix, or from the foreign 

 matter with which it is mechanically mixed. Its specific gravity is 

 about 1400, water being 1000 ; it is slowly combustible, but without 

 flame, and contains from 70 to 90 per cent, of carbon. Naphtha may 

 be considered as one extremity of the mineral carbonaceous sub- 

 stances, and anthracite as the other ; and from the highly-inflammable 

 fluid naphtha we have numerous varieties of mineral tar, or petroleum, 

 bitumen, asphaltum, cannel-coal, caking-coal, slaty-coal, &c., all dimi- 

 nishing in inflammability, until at last we come to the blind-coal, or 

 anthracite. If asphaltum, or indurated mineral pitch, be subjected to 

 distillation, at a certain stage of the process, when it has lost a part 

 of the bitumen which it contains, it resembles caking Newcastle coal ; 

 continuing the distillation, it passes into a substance which is identical 

 with anthracite, both in appearance and composition. The following 

 is an analysis of Welsh anthracite : 



Carbon 92'56 



Hydrogen 3'33 



Oxygen and Nitrogen .... 2'53 



Ash . ... . 1-58 



100-00 



It is undoubtedly of vegetable origin in common with all coal. 

 [COAL ; COAL PLANTS.] 



ANTHRACOTHE'RIUM (Cuvier), a Fossil genus of Pachyderm 

 Mammals, of which many species occur in Tertiary deposits, especially 

 in the Gypseous and Lignitic strata of Paris and Tuscany. 



ANTHRI'SCUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Umbellifent and the tribe Scandidnecf. It is known by possessing 

 little or no calyx, with heart-shaped petals bent down at the point ; a 

 fruit narrowed below the short beak, and without any ridges. The 

 beak has five ridges. 



A. tylrestris, Wild Chervil, is known by its terminal stalked umbels, 

 and its linear glabrous fruit with a short beak. It is a common weed 

 in hedges and banks throughout Europe. 



A. Ctrefolium (Scandix Cerefolmm), the Garden Chervil, is probably 

 an escape from cultivation in England. It is common enough in waste 

 places. [ScANDix.] 



A. rulf/aris has the umbels lateral and stalked, and an ovate hispid 

 point. The leaves are slightly hairy. It is common in the waste 

 places of Great Britain. (Babington's Manual of British Botany.) 



ANTHROPHYLLITE, a mineral, containing, according to an 

 analysis by Gmelin : 



Silica 66 



Protoxide of Iron 13 



Magnesia 22 



Protoxide of Manganese 4 



Lime 



Alumina 3 



