ALL AMANDA ALLIGATOli. 



ALL AM AND A (Linnaeus). A splendid flow- 

 ering tropical tree, native of Guiana. Linnaean class 

 and order, Pentandrla Monogynia. Natural order, 

 Apocyneec. Generic character : calyx, five parted ; 

 corolla, funnel-shaped, but in five regular divisions ; 

 five subsessile arrow-shaped anthers ; ovarium supe- 

 rior, surrounded by a disk ; style one, stigmas 

 adhering to the anthers ; fruit round, compressed, 

 covered with membranous spines, filled with many 

 seeds. There is only one species described. 



ALLANITE (prismatic cerium ore). This mi- 

 neral was first accurately described by Dr. Thomson, 

 in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions. It is 

 massive in its character, and of a brownish-black 

 colour. Its specific gravity is about 3'6, and it occurs 

 crystallised in four, six, or eight-sided prisms. It may 

 be proper to add, that the ores of cerium analysed by 

 Berzelius, under the name of cerin, approach very 

 closely to it in their composition. 



ALLIGATORS. Agenus of aquatic Saurian rep- 

 tiles of large size, formidable structure, and voracious 

 habits. There is not much difference between the cro- 

 codiles of the eastern world and the alligators of the 

 western, neither is t here much difference in the signi- 

 fica'ion of the two names. The crocodile was named 

 by the Greeks after a yellow lizard, the exact species 

 is not known, from the feet of which there exuded 

 a liquor of a musky scent ; and the alligator is only a 

 corruption of the Portuguese words for lizard, and 

 was by them applied to the crocodiles of western 

 Africa before the American species had been disco- 

 vered. 



Alligators are, as one would say, ungainly, and 

 even ugly animals ; but they are not naturally fero- 

 cious ; they kill only to eat, and they kill but one at 

 a time. If indeed the prey, is so tough that they 

 cannot break it by the pressure, of their jaws, they 

 take it under water, and bury it there till it becomes 

 softened by partial putrefaction. In these cases, the 

 same unquenched hunger sends them to look for 

 more ; and they continue the process till they can 

 meet with something which can be eaten instanter. 

 No reptiles masticate or grind their food ; and few, if 

 any, give it a second bite. Their jaws close like the 

 sides of a spring trap ; and if they do not enclose the 

 whole of the prey, the only way that the animal has 

 of detaching the portion which they do seize, in 

 order to swallow it, is by shaking it ; and when 

 they are unable to accomplish this, they bury it 

 under water in the manner which has been stated. 



Animals, when swallowed whole or nearly so, take 

 of course longer in digesting than when they are torn 

 or chewed ; and thus the alligators are, like the 

 larger swallowing serpents, dull and languid for some 

 time after a full meal. 



At all times, indeed, they are indolent animals ; 

 for though they can walk tolerably fast, and swim 

 faster, the greater part of their time is spent in inac- 

 tion, and some of it, in the colder climates, in a torpid 

 or dormant state. 



In climates where they hybernate, they dig for 

 themselves hybernating dens with the entrance under 

 the water, but the chamber so high as that the water 

 does not reach it. It does not appear that any 

 animal which breathes free air by means of lungs, 

 has been known to hybernate under water. There is 

 some doubt, in the case of the frogs of cold coun- 

 tries ; but the analogy is against it, and there is no 

 direct proof to rebut the analogy. Upon the con- 



fines, however, the lungs of some of the aquatic rep- 

 tiles, and the gill cells of some of the cartilaginous 

 fishes, have so near a resemblance to each other, that 

 the line of distinction, though there is no doubt of its 

 existence, is a nice point to determine. It is worthy 

 of remark, too, that the reptiles and the fishes alluded 

 to are both tenacious 01 life in proportion to the 

 sluggish action of their system ; and there is also 

 something curious in the growth of their bones. 



During the heat of 'the day, the alligators either 

 lie stretched and languid on the banks, or in the 

 mud, on the shores of the rivers and lagunes, which 

 are the favourite haunts of the animals ; and as the 

 other natives of such localities (the winged ones 

 which sport in the sun excepted) are generally at 

 rest at these times, the consequence is, that, during 

 the day, they capture but few animals, excepting 

 such as wander near them. They sometimes, now- 

 ever, are put into motion and noise in the heat and 

 drought, by that singular wave called the " bore," 

 which is known in some of the fen rivers of England, 

 and which is often very high and violent in its mo- 

 tion in the level-bedded rivers of warmer climates. 

 Heavy and strong as the full-grown alligators are, 

 the force of the bore rolls them powerless before it ; 

 and they rattle against each other, and bellow, adding 

 much to the noise and confusion. There is no bore 

 in the bays or lagunes, and none in rivers above the 

 first rapid, even though that is an inconsiderable one ; 

 and thus, during the hot and sunny days, the alli- 

 gators in these are at peace. When evening comes, 

 however, they begin to move, and the roaring of the 

 larger ones is terrific. It is a compound of the 

 sounds of the bull and the bittern, but far louder 

 than either ; and it grates and shivers on the ear as if 

 the ground were shaking. Whether it produces any 

 effect upon the prey of the alligators, in making that 

 prey disclose itself by its efforts to escape, is not 

 known ; and, indeed, harsh and terrific as it is, it 

 seems not only to be the common noise of the rep- 

 tiles, but also their love song, which they emit fre- 

 quently and freely in the pairing season. The his- 

 tory of the pairing is not very complete ; but there 

 are some reasons for concluding that they are poly- 

 gamous. The males engage in fierce though un- 

 couth battles at that season, and not, as lias been ob- 

 served, at any other ; and the fair inference is that 

 these are battles of gallantry. They usually take 

 place in the water, though in the shallows rather 

 than the depths ; and, at first at least, they are bouts 

 of cudgel-play, rather than battles with the teeth. 

 When it comes to the latter, it is desperate, and the 

 death of one, sometimes of both, is inevitable. It 

 has already been said, that the alligator can give no 

 second bite j and as little is it disposed to leave the first 

 one, till the object which it seizes is fairly under water. 

 The jaws close in the same manner as those of the 

 " biting turtles," and they can with difficulty be 

 wrenched asunder, even by a lever of considerable 

 length. 



As is the case with all the larger reptiles which 

 find their food chiefly in the water, the alligators are 

 oviparous , and the females deposit their eggs in 

 holes of the banks, above the water mark, which 

 they excavate with their paws and snout, and cover 

 again after the eggs are deposited. Though the 

 animal is sometimes very large, fifteen, twenty, or 

 even thirty feet in length, and in the latter case little 

 less than two feet in diameter where thickest, the eggs 



