A M E 



s, (from astas, summer.) Plants which blossom in summer 

 Ajo'ra, (from a, -without, and fores, a door.) Having no doors or 



valves. 



Agamous, (from , without, and gamos, marriage.) Plants without 

 any visible stamens or pistils, are by French botanists called aga- 

 mous. 



A'ges of plants. Ephemeral are such as spring up, blossom, and ripen 

 their seed in a few hours or days ; annual live a few months, or one 

 summer. 



biennial, spring up one summer, and die the following. 

 perennial, live an indefinite period. 



Aggregate, (from aggregare, to assemble.) Many springing Irom 

 the same point : this term was at first applied to compound flowers, 

 but there is at present a sevenfold division of aggregate flowers; the 

 aggregate, properly so called. 

 compound, 

 umbellate, 

 cyyiose, 

 amentaceous, 

 glumose, 

 spadiceous. 



Aggregate flower is erected on peduncles or footstalk, which all have 

 one common receptacle on the stem ; they sometimes have one com- 

 mon calyx, and are sometimes separataly furnished with a calyx. 



Ai'grette. See egret. 



A'la. A Latin word signifying a wing. It is sometimes used to ex- 

 press the angle formed by the stem with the branch or leaf. Linnaeus 

 and some others use the term ala, as the name of a membrane ai- 

 fixed to some species of seeds which serves as a wing to raise them 

 into the air, and thus promotes their dispersion. 



A'la. The two lateral or side petals of a papilionaceous flower. 



Albu'men. The farinaceous, fleshy, or horny substance, which consti- 

 tutes the chief bulk of monocotyledonous seeds; as wheat, rye, &c. 



Alburnum, (from albus, white.J The soft white substance, which in 

 trees is found between the Hoer, or inner bark, and the wood, and be- 

 coming solid, in progress of time is converted into wood. From its ' 

 colour and comparative softness, it has been styled the fat of trees. 

 It is called the 5*777 wood, and is formed by a deposite of the cambium 

 or descending sap ; in one year it becomes wood; and a new Jav^i 

 of alburnum is again formed by the descent of the cambium. \f 



Al'ga. Flags ; these by Linnaeus comprise the plants of the ordei 

 Hcpaticfz and Lic/ienes. 



Al'pine. Growing naturally on high mountains. 



Alter' note. Branches, leaves, flower, &c. are alternate, when begin- 

 ning at different distances on the stem ; opposite, is when they com 

 mence at the same distances, and base stands against base. 



Alternately pinnate leaf; when the leafets are arranged alternately on 

 each side of the common footstalk or petiole. 



Alvf/olate. Having cells which resemble a honey-comb^,*. 



Am'bUus. The outer rim of a frond, receptacle, *&c. f 



Afment. Flowers collected on chaffv scales, and arranged on a. thread 



