ALEPACEPHALES ALGJE. 



pipe at its bronchial extremity. They all perch, and 

 most of them nestle in trees. They also feed much 

 upon seeds, fruits, and buds. They are social, and 

 easily domesticated ; and, when in good condition, 

 their flesh is esteemed. The following are the ge- 

 nera : Crax, the hocco, or curassow ; Ournx, the 

 pauxi ; Penelope, the guan, or yacou ; Ortalida, the 

 parraqua ; and Opkistocomiis, the hoazin. But the 

 species and even the genera arc confused, as they 

 have been mixed with the European Gallinse. They 

 all belong to South America. 



ALEPOCEPHALES. A genus of soft-finned 

 fishes with abdominal fins, belonging to the esocedece 

 or pike family, from the majority of which they, how- 

 ever, differ in many of their characters and habits. 

 They have small scales on their body, but none on 

 the head, which is the character on which the name 

 is founded. They are large fishes, with small mouths, 

 and very large eyes. Only one species is known, 

 A 1. rmlratus (the beaked smooth head) of Risso. It 

 is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, a deep sea fish, 

 and its habits are very little known. 



Notwithstanding the labours of Risso and others, 

 the natural history of the Mediterranean still wants 

 much investigation ; and there are few seas which 

 offer a more abundant harvest to the inquirer. The 

 circumstance of this fish, which resembles in its gene- 

 ral structure those fishes which inhabit rivers, ponds, 

 and the shallows, or at least not the greatest depths 

 of the sea in other places, being not merely a pelagic 

 fish, but a deep sea one, in the Mediterranean, is a 

 peculiarity worthy of notice. When we further con- 

 sider the numerous and varied climates, the waters of 



which mingle in the Mediterranean, without any out- 

 let save the strait of Gibraltar, which is too narrow 



for allowing a free and rapid mingling with the great 



mass of oceanic water ; and when we consider, also, 



that the Mediterranean is, in great part at least, as it 



were " a cauldron on the fire," from the volcanic action 



which is constantly going on under its bed, and which 



sometimes penetrates upward to the surface when 



we consider these, we may expect that the living pro- 

 ductions of the Mediterranean shall correspond with 



those of the sea itself. The waters from tropical 



Africa, from those parts of Russia which are for 



nearly half the year covered with ice and snow, from 



the temperate valley of the Danube, and from the 



glaciers of the Alps, all blend in the Mediterranean, 



and are there subjected to the action of volcanic fire ; 



and, though there is both an outward and an inward 



current in the strait of Gibraltar, these are not enough 



to connect the water of the Mediterranean with the 



general circulation of the oceans. There is no other 



sea on the surface of the globe that has such peculi- 

 arities ; and for this reason, the natural history of 



the Mediterranean is highly interesting. 



71 



first long and extending a considerable way along the 

 back ; the second small, triangular, and soft and fatty 

 as the salmon. The ventral fins of medium size and 

 abdominal ; the anal fin of mean length ; the caudal 

 large and forked ; the gill-flap with six or seven 

 rays. This is rather a curious genus, as combining 

 some of the characters of the spinous and soft-finned 

 fishes. Its habits are little known, but from its 

 structure it must be both voracious and formidable. 



ALETRIS. A genus containing two species of 

 perennial herbs cultivated for their flowers. Linnaean 

 class and order, Hexandria Monogynia. Natural order, 

 HcmerocalMccB. Generic character : calyx, corolla-like, 

 tubular, rough ; limb in six regular divisions ; Stamina 

 erect ; filaments short, inserted into the base of the 

 segments ; anthers somewhat arrow-shaped ; style 

 and stigma three-sided ; capsule seed-bearing, crowned 

 with the style, three-celled, three-valved. Placenta 

 central, seeds numerous, minute, and arched. 



ALEXANDERS. See SMYRNIUM. A warm-fla- 

 voured aromatic herb , used in salads. The seed 

 is sowed in drills in February or March ; and as the 

 plants rise, are earthed up and blanched like celery, 

 and used in the same way. The plant is now, how- 

 ever, seldom cultivated. 



ALGJ2. The sea-weed tribe, a family of plants 

 belonging to the acotyledonous or cellular order of 

 vegetables, and to the cryptogamic class of the 

 Linnaean system. 



ALEPISAURUS. A genus of Acanthoptery- 

 geous, or spinous-finned fishes, belonging to Cuvier's 

 natural family of Tcenioides, or " riband fishes," first 

 communicated to the Zoological Society of London 

 by the Rev. R. T. Lowe in 1832. There is but 

 one known species, a native of the Atlantic in the 

 neighbourhood of Madeira, and rare. This species is 

 Alepisuurus ferox, of which the following are the 

 leading characters. The head compressed ; the gape 

 wide, and distant from the eyes ; the teeth, a single 

 row in each jaw, conspicuous, long, and recurved 

 backwards. The body long and slender, and both 

 body and head without scales. Two dorsal fins, the 



Fucus 



vesiculosis. 



This family consists of aquatic, leafless, and flower- 

 less plants, which vary much in form and texture. 

 They exist frequently in the form of jointed filaments 

 of greater or less size, or of flat membranes, which are 

 sometimes furnished with distinct stems. Their fruc- 

 tification consists of seeds or sporules, occasionally 

 contained in tubercles or processes arising from the 

 frond. They are attached to various substances, 

 such as stones, rocks, shells, &c. ; but they seem to 

 derive nourishment chiefly from the element in 

 which they grow, by a process which takes place 

 over their whole surface. Some species have pro- 

 cesses like roots by which they are attached, while 

 others are always met with in a floating state, and 



