310 



AURELIA. 



AVERRHOA. 



350 



also filled with fragrant essential oil. No natural order can well be 

 more strictly defined than the Orange Tribe, and none have properties 

 more uniform and definite. It consists of trees or shrubs found 

 exclusively in the temperate or tropical parts of the Old World, and 

 unknown in a wild state in America. Their flowers are usually odori- 

 ferous, and their fruits subacid ; the rind has some shade of yellow. 

 They principally differ from each other in the number and proportion 

 or arrangement of their stamens, in the number of cells or seeds in 

 the fruit, and in the texture of the rind of the fruit, which does not 

 always pull off as in the orange, the lemon, the citron, and their 

 congeners, but is frequently a mere skin inclosing the pulp. [CITRUS.] 

 The natural order which is most nearly allied to the Orange Tribe is 

 that called Xanthoxylacece, into which the oranges pass by their 

 climbing genus, Lavanga, and which differ principally in having a 

 hard dry fruit which splits into several carpels. 



The Orange, Lemon, Lime, Shaddock, Pompelmoose, Forbidden 

 Fruit, and Citron, are the produce of this order. The Wampa, a fruit 

 highly esteemed in China and the Indian Archipelago, is produced 

 by Cookia punctata. The fruit of Glycos-mist citrifolia is delicious ; 

 that of Triphafia is very agreeable. The jgle Marmdos is used 

 in medicine : a perfume is prepared from the rind of the fruit, which 

 itself is delicious to the taste, and acts as a laxative medicine. The 

 leaves of Feronia elephantum have a very agreeable smell Orange 

 flowers yield a delicious odour, and the oils of Bergamot and Lemon 

 are obtained from the rind of the fruit of species of Citrus. 

 (Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom.) 



AURE'LIA, in Entomology, a name given to that state of an insect 

 which is between the caterpillar and its final transformation, and is 

 commonly called a Chrysalis or Pupa. The term Aurelia was first 

 applied by the Romans, and that of Chrysalis by the Greeks, to 

 certain butterfly pupae which have a golden colour. In England, 

 those of the Peacock-Butterfly ( Vanessa 26) and the small Tortoise- 

 Shell Butterfly ( Vanessa Vrticce) are beautiful examples, and may be 

 seen in abundance hanging to the common stinging nettles about the 

 latter end of the month of June. [PUPA.] 



AURICHA'LCITE, a carbonate of Copper and Zinc. It occurs 

 amorphous, sometimes granular, or in radiating masses. The colour 

 is green. It is slightly transparent. Hardness but slight. It is 

 found at Loktewsk in the Altai. The analysis by Bottger gives 



Oxide of Copper 28'19 



Oxide of Zinc 45'84 



Carbonic Acid 16'06 



Water 9'91 



100 



AURI'CULA, the name given to a commonly-cultivated species of 

 the genus Primula. [PRIMULA.] 



AURI'CULA, a genus of Phytophagous or Plant-Eating TracKdi- 

 podoua MoHiuca, whose organs of respiration are formed for breathing 

 air. Cuvier observes, that the species of this genus differ from all the 

 Pulmoniferous Aquatic Mollusks which precede them in his system, in 

 having the columella or pillar of the shell marked by large plaits. 

 The species of A uricula appear to live in the neighbourhood of rivers, 

 lakes, or morasses, and their respiratory system, though formed for 

 breathing air, is so framed as to enable them to sustain any vicissitudes 

 to which such a locality might render them liable. Auricula Midtf 

 (Lam.), Valuta Auris Midie (Linn.), the Midas'a Ear of collectors, is a 

 good example of the genus. 



Mulas's Ear (Auricula Mida-). 



It is said to be an inhabitant of the East Indies. Lamarck also 

 names the Moluccas as its locality. 



The following is the generic character : Shell somewhat oval, or 

 ovate-oblong; aperture longitudinal, narrowed above, and with the 

 base entire ; pillar with one or more plaits ; outer lip either reflected 

 or simple and acute. 



The true A uricufa are the inhabitants of warm climates. There is 

 one in the south of France, near the shores of the Mediterranean 

 (Auricula miiianti* of Dnijarnaud), but it is a small species. 



AUROTKLLINITE, a mineral containing Gold combined with 

 Tellurium. 



AU8T CLIFF. In the Bone-Bed 'of this famous locality, usually 

 classed with the Lias Formation, occur a few organic remains which 



appear to belong also to the Keuper deposits. This has been thought 

 a sufficient reason for removing these beds out of the Lias. But if 

 we regard their mineralogical and geological relations, this displacement 

 will hardly be allowed. 



AUTOMALITE. [GAHNITE.] 



AUTOMOLITE, a variety of Spinel [SPINEL] containing 34 per 

 cent, of oxide of zinc. It' is infusible alone, and nearly so with borax. 

 It occurs in granite at Haddam, in Connecticut, together with Beryl, 

 Chrysoberyl, Garnet, &c. ; also near Falun in Sweden, in Talcose Slate. 



AUTONOTitEA (Risso), a genus of Long-Tailed Decapodous Crustacea, 

 founded on A ut&nomea Oliv-ii, which is a little more than an inch in 

 length, and bears great resemblance in form to Nika and Alpheus. 

 A utonomea lives solitarily in sea-weed, &c., and the female produces 

 red eggs, which she carries with her about the middle of summer. It 

 is found in the Adriatic Sea. [SHRIMPS.] 



AVANTURI'NE, a variety of Quartz, remarkable for the brilliancy 

 with which it reflects light, the effect being in general produced by 

 fine points of Mica imbedded within the crystalline mass. From this 

 circumstance it is sometimes used in jewellery, but is of little value. 



AVE'NA, the botanical name of the genus to which the cultivated 

 Oat belongs. As understood by Linnaeus and the writers of his 

 school, it comprehended many very distinct forms of Grasses, as well 

 as the common cultivated kinds ; but by other botanists it is more 

 correctly limited to the species that yield corn, and to such as are 

 closely allied to them. They are known by their lax panicles, their 

 two loose membranous glumes, and by the small number of their 

 florets, each of which has one of its husks or palete armed with a strong 

 twisted beard or awn. The grain is generally, but not uniformly, 

 closely invested with the hardened husk. 



The Common Oat (Arena saliva), is that which is most generally 

 cultivated for the use of man. Like most other corn-plants its native 

 country is unknown ; it cannot however be supposed to be the 

 offspring of cultivation or of chance, but is more likely to be an 

 inhabitant of some of the northern provinces of Asia to which 

 Europeans have little access. [OAT, in ARTS AND Sc. Div.] 



The Tartarian Oat is considered a distinct species, on account of its 

 more compact and one-sided panicle, and of both its florets having a 

 beard; it is however doubtful whether it can be regarded as anything 

 more than a variety of A. satira. Botanists call it A. orientalis, but 

 its native country seems as uncertain as that of the last. 



The Naked Oat (A. nuda), so called because its grain is loose in the 

 husk, is found wild in many parts of Europe, and by some is thought 

 to be a mere degeneration of the Common Oat. It is common in 

 Austria, where it is cultivated for its grain, which is however small, 

 and not much esteemed. , 



The Chinese Oat (A. Chinensis), is another species, the grain of which 

 is loose in the husk. It is said to have been procured by the Russians 

 from the north of China along with their tea. This species is the 

 most productive of all the known kinds, every flower producing from 

 three to five grains, which are large and of excellent quality. It is 

 however said to be difficult to harvest on account of the grains not 

 adhering to the husks, but being very easily shaken out. 



Besides the species cultivated for the corn which they yield, there 

 is another that deserves to be noticed on account of its remarkable 

 hygrometrical action. This plant, the Animal Oat of gardeners, the 

 A. sterilii of systematic writers, is something like the Common Oat 

 when young; but when ripe its grains are inclosed in hard hairy 

 brown husks, from the back of which rises a stout bent and twisted 

 awn. Usually two such husks grow together, and separate from the 

 Ktalk by a deep oblique scar. Taking the scar for the head of an 

 insect, the husks with their long stiff brown hairs resemble its body, 

 and the two bent awns represent its legs. In this state fishermen use 

 a smaller but nearly allied species, called Havers (A. fatua) instead of 

 artificial flies for catching trout. When the Animal Oat is ripe it falls 

 out of its glumes, and in warm dry weather may be seen rolling and 

 turning about on its long ungainly legs, as they twist up in conse- 

 quence of their hygrometrical quality. It necessarily advances as it 

 turns over, because the long stiff hairs upon its body catch against 

 every little projecting point on the surface of the soil and prevent its 

 retreat. Nothing can be more curious than to see the path of a 

 garden-walk covered with these things tumbling and sprawling about 

 in different directions, until their awns are so twisted that they 

 can twist no further. They then remain quiet till the dews fall, or 

 they are moistened by a shower, when they rapidly untwist and run 

 about with renewed activity, as if anxious to get out of the wet. 



AVENS. [GEUM.] 



AVE'RRHOA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Oxalidacea;. It consists of two species, both of which form small 

 trees in the East Indies. They are remarkable for their leaves, which 

 are pinnated, possessing in a slight degree the kind of irritability 

 found in the sensitive plant, and for their fleshy oval fruits with five 

 thick longitudinal wings. From the other genus of Oxalidacece they 

 are known by this character, independently of all others. 



In the Carambola (A. carambola) the leaves are smooth, the 

 flowers of a violet-purple, and the fruit about the size of a goose's 

 egg ; it is of a palo yellow colour, and is said to be agreeably acid 

 in the East Indies. It was expected that it would prove worth culti- 

 vating in the hothouse for the dessert, but it proves upon trial to 



