A N C H O V Y - P E A R A N D E R S O N I A. 



107 



small. The time when it became so general a sea- 

 soning for fish is not precisely known ; but it was used 

 us a saiic-e or pickle of some sort or other in the time 

 of the Romans. It is a curious fact, that the anchovy 

 does not improve the flavour of any of the family to 

 which it belongs. 



ANCHOVY-PEAR. Is a stem-flowering tropical 

 tree found in Jamaica. It is called Grias cauliflora 

 by botanists, and belongs to Polyandria Monogynia 

 and the natural order, GnttiJ'erce (ctffinis). Generic 

 character: calyx adhering to the germen, cup- 

 shaped, a little four-parted, persisting; petals four, 

 leathery ; stamens many, inserted on the disk ; fila- 

 ments like bristles, connected at the base; anthers 

 kidney-shaped, very small ; style, none ; stigma thick- 

 ish, four-sided, crossed, hollowed ; drupe large, each 

 side thin, crowned with the calyx, having eight fur- 

 rows ; nut oblong. The unripe fruit of this tree 

 is used as a pickle ; and the foliage and flowers are 

 ornamental. It genefally grows in low moist places 

 or in shallow water. 



ANCILLARIA(Swainson). ANCILL A (Lamarck). 

 A genus of shells belonging to the class Paracepha- 

 lophora, order Syphonobranchiata, family Angyostomata 

 of de Blainville. These shells are smooth and highly 

 polished, appearing as if rubbed to an even surface by 

 art ; they are oblong oval, pointed behind, enlarged, 

 and appear as if truncated in front ; aperture oval, 

 rather lengthened, and angular behind ; not very 

 deeply channelled in front ; the columella anteriorly 

 with an oblique callous band, and the right lip obtuse. 

 They inhabit the East Indies, but the animal is 

 quite unknown. Twenty recent species are described 

 and five fossil. 



The genus is distributed into two subdivisions : 

 the first species having the spire rather elevated and 

 bucciniform, as in the Ancillnria buccinoides ; the 

 second species here figured with 

 scarcely any spire, as the A. cin- 

 namomcEa. This shell is chest- 

 nut brown, with white bands 

 aim 1MK II above ; columella reddish, and 

 somewhat striped ; the length 

 is about one inch. The name 

 of this genus is probably de- 

 rived from ancilla, a damsel. 

 A. cinnamomaea. The columella never being 

 plaited, readily distinguishes this shell from the vo- 

 lutes, with which Linmeus had blended it ; and the 

 callous oblique thickening at the base of the colu- 

 mella, separates it from the terebellum, but it appears 

 closely to approximate to the genus Eburna. 



ANCYLODON. A genus of spinous-finned 

 fishes, belonging to the family of Seienoideae, the type 

 of which is a fish of the Mediterranean, which has 

 been known and esteemed as food since the days of 

 the Romans'. Only one species of the present genus 

 is named. It is a native of the warm seas, but neither 

 its haunts nor habits are known, any farther than can 

 be inferred from its structure ; and .there are no 

 animals of which museum specimens are, not so use- 

 less merely but so mischievous, from being apt to mis- 

 lead, as fishes : the soft parts cannot be preserved ; 

 and thus, as the internal structure is unknown, we can 

 s ifely infer nothing from the skin, the jaw-bones, and 

 the teeth. The species under consideration has but 

 one dorsal fin ; the tail is pointed ; the head thick, 

 short and round ; and the teeth, especially the ca- 

 nines, very long, strong, and formidable. 



Hence it is probable that the chief food is 

 shelled mollusca and Crustacea ; that the fish is an 

 inhabitant of rocky shores ; and that, from the na- 

 ture of its food, its flesh should be wholesome and 

 palatable. 



ANCYLUS, of modern naturalists : Patella (Lin- 

 aaeus). A genus belonging to the class Paracepha- 

 lophora ; third order, Scutibrnncliinta ; first family, 

 Otidea^ in De Blainville's system of malacology. 



The body of the animal is oval, conical, nearly 

 straight, a little bent backward, with a rather large 

 oval foot ; the mantle with thin edges, not tentacular, 

 nor extending beyond the head, which is very visible 

 and very large ; two large tentacula, 

 cylindrical, and contractile, having a 

 foliaceous appendage at their external 

 side ; the mouth is altogether beneath, 

 and pierced in the middle of a buccal mass, prolonged 

 on each side into an appendage ; and on the left side 

 the lateral branches in a sack or cavity, situated in 

 the midst of the animal's left side, between the foot 

 and the mantle ; it is closed by an operculated ap- 

 pendage. The shell is nearly symmetrical, entirely 

 covering the animal ; the summit pointed and in- 

 clined backward, the base oval and smooth. Lin- 

 naeus was guided in this, as in many other instances, 

 by the form of the shell only, and consequently classed 

 it with the patella, which it greatly resembles ; mo- 

 dern naturalists have very properly constituted a dis- 

 tinct genus of it. Lamarck observes that he has 

 only provisionally placed it with the Calyptrae ; but 

 the animal existing altogether \nfresh water, and ha- 

 bitually breathing air, renders it very different from 

 the inhabitant of the latter. Drapaunaud has placed 

 this genus following that of Lymnea, which the ani- 

 mal's organisation narrowly approximates ; and Blain- 

 ville says that, not knowing enough of the animal's 

 organisation to class it positively, he has placed it 

 near the Haliotidia, by a similarity in the position of 

 the branchiae. 



They are fresh water shells, attaching themselves to 

 flags and other aquatic plants ; they are nearly am- 

 phibious ; and in summer, when the brooks become 

 dry, they remain in the soft mud until the return 

 of rain. The minuteness of the species renders the 

 study of these animals rather intricate. 



ANDALUSITE. An earthy mineral of a red 

 colour. It occurs in gneiss, mica slate, and clay slate, 

 and was first found in Andalusia, in Spain ; hence 

 its name. It is now found in mica slate in Aberdeen- 

 shire, in the Isle of Uist, at Dartmoor, at Killiney, 

 near Dublin, and at Douce Mountain, in the county 

 of Wicklow. 



This mineral is usually seen in a hard and brittje 

 state ; indeed it will readily scratch common quartz ; 

 but we are told by Herr Von Voith that the andalu- 

 site of Herzoyan is so soft in its original repository, 

 that he could flatten it between his fingers, and cut 

 it with a knife, but that it became very hard by ex- 

 posure to the air. 



ANDERSONIA. A greenhouse evergreen shrub, 

 introduced from New Holland by Robert Brown, 

 belonging to the Linnaean class and order Pentandria 

 Monogynia. Natural order Epacridece. Generic 

 character: calyx coloured like bractea; corolla, bot- 

 tom of the limb bearded ; stamens below the germen ; 

 anthers fixed to the middle ; five scales round the ger- 

 men ; capsule contains a central placenta like a 

 column. 



