ANTIMONOPHYLLITE. 



APE. 



270 



its vigour and resolution, it is the most common prey of the tiger, 

 which the shikarrees often destroy in the very act of devouring the 

 mangled remains of this animal ; for, when these are discovered, the 

 hunters always erect their platforms in a convenient situation in the 

 neighbourhood of the carcass, knowing by experience that the tiger 

 is sure to return on the following night to glut himself at leisure with 

 the produce of his previous chase. The Nyl-Ghau has often bred in 

 confinement, both hi this country and in India. The period of gesta- 

 tion lasts eight months, and two young are most commonly pro- 

 duced at a birth. At first the young males are of the same reddish- 

 brown colour as the females, and only assume the grayish-blue shade 

 proper to their sex on arriving at maturity : their growth is, however, 

 rapid, and they attain their adult size in the second or third year of 

 their age. 



ANTIMONOPHYLLITE. [ANTIMOST.] 



ANTIMONY, a silver-white metal, slightly blue, and with a very 

 brilliant lustre. Its hardness is as great as that of gold. It has a 

 specific gravity of 6'7 6'8. It does not combine with oxygen at the 

 ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, but is fused at a temperature 

 a little below red-heat, and burns very vividly. It is a compact 

 brittle metal, and is sometimes found pure in nature, but never 

 abundantly. It occurs mixed with lead, silver, arsenic, and other 

 metals, but its most important ore, and that from which it is 

 obtained for commercial and medicinal purposes, is the sulphuret. 

 It enters into composition with other metals of several alloys used 

 in the arts. '/'<//' M'tul is composed of one-fourth to one-twelfth of 

 antimony, the rest being lead, tin, bismuth, and copper. Hard Pewter 

 is made of 12 parts of tin and 1 of antimony ; Britannia Metal of 

 antimony, tin, bismuth, and copper. The markets are supplied with 

 the ores of antimony from Hungary, England, France, and lately 

 from Borneo. The following are some of the forms in which 

 antimony occurs as a mineral : 



Native Antimony, with a little silver. St'Mite ia an antimoniate of 

 antimony, the oxide of antimony acting as an acid. There are two 

 oxides or acids of antimony, both of which are found native, and are 

 called Antimonic Acid and Antimoniou* Acid. White Antimony is a 

 sesquioxide of antimony. Antimonoj>hyllite is an impure oxide of 

 antimony. Gray A ntimony is a compound of three of sulphur and one 

 of antimony. It occurs in masses or veins in Mutamorphic and 

 Igneous rocks. It fuses rapidly in the flame of a candle. It is often 

 seen in long prwmatic or acicular crystals with strong vertical striae. 

 Zinkenitc is a sulphuret of antimony and lead, containing 45 per cent, 

 of antimony. Playionite is the same, but contains only 38 per cent, 

 of antimony. Feather Ore i the same, with 31 per cent. Boutanyerite 

 the game, with 25 J per cent. Jamenunite is a sulphuret of antimony, 

 with iron and bismuth, containing 35 per cent, of antimony. Red 

 Aii'iimiuy is also called Kermet Mineral and Antimony Blende, and is a 

 mixture of the sulphuret and oxide of antimony, containing 75 per 

 cent of the latter. Antimoniate of Lead contains 31 per cent, of 

 antimony. Arsenical Antimony contains 62 per cent, of arsenic and 

 37 per cent, of antimony. Berthierite or JlaniinyrUe is a sulphuret 

 of antimony and iron. The following are sulphurets of antimony and 

 \eA:8ttiniii<iiiii;t,; Killbrickenite, Kottdlite, White Silver, (jeokronite, 

 and Boulangerite. 



(Ansted, Elementary Course of Mineralogy, &c.) 



ANTIKRHI'NUM, a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order ^f,->,j>lnilttrUt':eie. This genus is the type of a section of the 

 order to which also the genera Linaria, Antirrhinum, Afitiiranilia, 

 Galvesi'i, lofboipanHH^ ;unl Bkodock/iton belong. It is characterised 

 by a 5-parted oblique calyx ; a personate corolla, gibbous at the base, 

 but with no distinct spur ; the lobes of the upper lip erect, those of 

 the Jower spreading, 3-fid, with the middle segment smallest, and a 

 bearded palate which closes the mouth ; the capsule 2-celled, opening 

 by two or three pores at the top ; seeds oblong, minute, with black 

 testa. The species are annual or perennial, rarely shrubby. The 

 leaves are feather-veined, and entire, opposite below, and usually 

 alternate above. Two of the species are indigenous to Great Britain. 

 All of them produce showy flowers, and are much cultivated in 

 gardens. Their medicinal properties are not very active. 



A. majiLs, Great or Common Snapdragon, has lanceolate, opposite 

 or alternate glabrous leaves, racemose flowers, ovate obtuse sepals, 

 much shorter than the corolla, arid the upper lip bifid. This plant 

 attains a height of one or two feet, and has purplish-red or white 

 flowers. It is found in Great Britain on old walls and chalk clifls, 



i gardens a variety 

 flowers. The leaves are bitter and slightly stimulant. 



A. Orontium, Orontium Snapdragon, or Calves' Snout, has linear- 

 lanceolate opposite or alternate leaves ; the flowers loosely spiked, 

 distant ; the sepals linear and longer than the corolla. This plant 

 appears to be truly indigenous in England and Ireland, where it occurs 

 in dry sandy nnd gravelly soils. It is also a native throughout 

 Kiirope, in the islands of the Mediterranean, and the north of Africa. 

 I been found in Virginia, but it has been probably introduced. 

 Its leaves as well as those of other species have been used as cataplasms 

 in indolent tumors. 



I '"ii enumerates twelve other species, many of which have been 



introduced into our gardens. They are pretty border-flowers, and 

 adapted for rock-work. They are easily cultivated ; the perennial 

 species may be increased by cuttings, and the annual raised by seeds. 

 The species from subtropical districts will however require a frame 

 or the greenhouse in the winter. 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany ; Don, Gardener's Dictionary.) 

 ANTRIMOLITE, in Mineralogy, a hydrous silicate of alumina, with 

 lime and potash. According to Dr. Thomson it occurs in stalactitical- 

 looking masses about the length and thickness of a finger, adhering to 

 the summit of cavities in an amygdaloidal rock. In the centre of 

 each stalactite is a crystal of calcareous spar, or a fibrous-looking 

 round mass, pretty long, and having a foliated structure and a brown 

 colour, consisting of calcareeus spar. Colour chalk-white. Texture 

 fine silky fibrous. The fibres diverging from the central nucleus. 

 Opaque. Dull. Hardness 375. Specific gravity 2'0964.. 



When heated it loses water and hydrochloric acid. Before the 

 blowpipe it softens into an enamel, and with phosphate of soda gives 

 very slowly a transparent colourless glass. It gelatinises in hydro- 

 chloric acid. 



Found on the sea-shore at Bengore, about four miles from the 

 Giants' Causeway, on the north coast of the county of Antrim. 

 Analysis by Dr. Thomson : 



Silica 43-470 



Alumina 30'260 



Lime 7'500 



Potash 4-100 



Protoxide of Iron 0-190 



Chlorine 0'098 



Water . . . 15-320 



100-938 



AO'RTA, from a Greek word, aoprTj. The aorta is the great vesse 

 from which all the arteries of the body which carry red blood derive 

 their origin. It arises from the upper and back part of the left ventricle 

 of the heart. Its origin is directly opposite the lower margin of the 

 cartilage of the third rib on the right side of the chest. From this 

 point it ascends behind the pulmonary artery, still inclining a little 

 to the right side of the chest. It continues to ascend as far as the 

 top of the second vertebra of the back. All this part of the vessel is 

 called the Aorta Ascendent. When it reaches as high as the lower 

 margin of the first rib, it bends obliquely backwards towards the body 

 of the third vertebra of the back. This part of the vessel is called 

 the Curvature or the Transverse Arch of the Aorta. From the third 

 vertebra of the back, where its arch terminates, it proceeds in a 

 straight course downwards through the chest, immediately in front of 

 the spinal column, and towards the left side of it. Through an 

 opening formed for it in the diaphragm it passes from the chest into 

 the abdomen. All this part of the vessel, namely that extending 

 between the termination of the arch and the diaphragm is denominated 

 the Descending or the Straight Portion of the Thoracic Aorta. Having 

 passed through the diaphragm into the abdomen, it is called the 

 Abdominal Aorta. It continues to descend along the front of the spine 

 a little obliquely, until it reaches the fourth vertebra of the loins : 

 here it divides into two branches of equal size, and may be said to 

 terminate, for it now loses the name of aorta ; the two great branches 

 into which it divides being denominated the Common Iliac Arteries. 

 [HEAHT.] 



A'PATITE, a mineral substance crystallised in the regular six-sided 

 prism, usually terminated by a truncated six-sided pyramid. It occurs 

 variously modified by the removal of its lateral sides and angles. Its 

 specific gravity varies from 3'25 to 3'5. It is scratched by felspar, 

 but scratches fluor-spar. In colour it passes from white through 

 various shades of yellow to green and blue, and some specimens possess 

 a red tint. It is usually translucent, but rarely transparent. From 

 the analysis of G. Rose, Apatite appears to be a compound of phosphate 

 of lime with fluoride of calcium, in which the fluorine is more or less 

 replaced by its isomorphous element, chlorine. 



This mineral principally occurs in the Primitive rocks, and is found 

 in the tin-veins of St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, and also in those of 

 Bohemia and Saxony. It has also been observed in a massive mineral 

 called phosphorite, which appears t possess a similar chemical con- 

 stitution, and has been found abundantly in beds alternating with 

 limestone and quartz, near Logrosau, in Estremadura in Spain. Since 

 the practice of applying phosphate of lime to the soil has come into 

 use, it was proposed to employ this mineral ; but it does not appeal- 

 that any of -the phosphate of lime which is now used in artificial 

 manures is obtained from this source. The phosphate of lime thus 

 employed seems to owe its origin to an organic cause. [COPROLITES.] 



APE is sometimes employed in Zoology to express a genus of 

 Quadrumanous Mammals, which closely approaches to the human 

 species in anatomical structure, and is justly regarded as the connect- 

 ing link between man and the lower animals. The word ape seems to 

 be of doubtful origin : in German it is Affe, from which the verb iifcn 

 appears to have come. This is perhaps more probable than to suppose 

 that afe comes from of <M. The name exists, with very slight' varia- 

 tion, in all the modern languages of Teutonic origin ; as Ape in 

 English, Affe in German, A up in Dutch, &c. These also are the only 

 European languages which possess original appropriate names to 



