ATUYPA. 



ATYA. 



it in the days of popular ignorance and credulity the reputation of 

 being endowed with animal feelings ; the root* were mid to iihriek 

 when torn from the earth, and it WM accounted dangerous to disturb 



Mandrake (Atropa Mandragora). 



This remarkable plant has no apparent stem, but its long hairy 

 sharp-pointed leaves rise from the surface of the ground, and form a 

 deep green tuft, from the midst of which the flowers rise on slender 

 stalks about two inches long. Their corolla is of a whitish colour, 

 stained with veins of dingy purple ; the fruit is pale orange-coloured, 

 and about as large as a sparrow's egg. The smell of the whole 

 plant is very fetid. 



Atropa phyialoidts, a plant called Alkekengi in gardens, where it 

 is often cultivated as a hardy annual, belongs now to the genus 

 Nicandra. 



ATRYPA (Dalman), a subdivision of the great genus Terebratvla, 

 chiefly (if not entirely) confined to a fossil state, and to the Paleozoic 

 Strata. Many of the Spiriferit of Sowerby (as 6'. glabra, S. Jimbriata) 

 and some of the TercbratuUc of the same author (as T. jtuyntu), have 

 been referred to this genus. T. ptittacea is the recent analogue. 



ATTALE'A, a genus of Palms, found chiefly in the tropical parts 

 of America, where it occupies the richest soil and the hottest forests, 

 rarely ascending the sides of mountains, or spreading from the woods 

 into the open country. It extends, according to Von Martins, as far 

 south as the tropic of Capricorn. It belongs to the same division of 

 the natural order Palmacae as the cocoa-nut, from which as well a 

 from all its immediate allies, except Areng [ARENO], it in distinguished 

 by its nut containing three cells and three seeds. It is described by 

 Von Martius as consisting of lofty or middle-sized or even occasionally 

 stemless species, with a tbickish trunk, the wood of which is soft and 

 of a reddish-brown colour ; it in irregularly marked externally with 

 scare, and is terminated by large pinnated leaves, the stalks of which 

 are broad, and the segments smoothish, rather thick, plaited, and 

 neat-looking. The bunches of fruit are simply branched, but are 

 often of a vast size, and hong down from the bosoms of the 

 loaves, covered with brownish nut*, the seeds of which are eatable. 

 Several species are known, of which the most remarkable are the two 

 following : 



Attalta fimiftra, called by the natives Piacaba, is found in the 

 native forest* of the maritime provinces of Brazil, where it is one of the 

 most valuable gifts which the bountiful hand of nature has conferred 

 on man. The best cordage in South America for naval purposes is 

 manufactured from the fibres of the leaf-stalks and other parto; such 

 ropes are of great strength, and are extremely durable in salt water : 

 no other cables are employed in a great part of the Brazilian navy. 

 This species does not grow more than from 20 to 30 feet high ; its 

 nut*, which are about as Urge as an ostrich's egg, have a hard shell 

 like that of the cocoa-nut. 



Attalta citmpta, another species, is equally useful, but for different 

 purposes. This plant, the Pindora of the old writer* on Brazil, mid 

 the Indajaof the modern Portuguese, forms delightful grove* in the 

 interior of the country, growing from 20 to 60 feet clear of its branch- 

 like leaves ; the latter are from 16 to 20 feet long, and about 3 feet wide. 

 The fruit is the size of a goose's egg, and contains an eatable kernel, 



of which the negroes are fond. Its leaves form an excellent thatch, 

 and are woven into hats mats, and baskets. 



Attatca compla. 



Attalea ipecioia is the plant which, in the provinces of MaranhnO 

 and Para, furnishes the nuts which the Brazilians burn for the purpose 

 of smoking the juice of Siphunia elculica, or Indian Hublt-i, until it 

 becomes black. 



A'TYA, a genus of Crustaceous Animals, thus characterised by 

 Leach : 



Antenna;, interior, furnished with two bristles, inserted in the same 

 horizontal line ; exterior, inserted below the interior, about the Ini^t li 

 of the body, furnished at the base with a great scale which is 

 unidentate, or one-toothed, externally. 



Pedipolpi external, the last joint shortest ; flagrum elongated. 



Feet : the two anterior pairs equal, penultimate joint shortest ; last 

 joint divided ; laciniic equal, furnished at the apex with long cilia ; 

 third pair large, unequal, furnished with a very short nail ; two 

 posterior paint furnished with a moderate-sized nail. 



Tail, with the exterior lamella bipartite. 



Alyn 



' It forum," wiyn Ix'acli, "a peculiar subdivision of tin- Shrimp 

 Family, and one upecies only is known." 



