116 



ANISANTHUS ANISEED TREE. 



make their appearance in that portion of our year in 

 which the alternate dry heats and showers form a 

 sort of miniature of the tropical year, the study of 

 them leads very naturally to that of analogous ani- 

 mals and seasons upon the grander scale. It is one 

 of the great points of superiority in natural history 

 over all other studies, that there is no part of it but 

 which, when properly followed up, guides us to the rest. 



The details of anitnalcular history are somewhat 

 nice and difficult, because of the fine instruments and 

 minute observation which they require ; but even 

 here human ingenuity has been able to accomplish a 

 good deal. At first it would seem that nothing could 

 be known of the internal structure of creatures in- 

 visible to the naked eye, and in general perfectly 

 transparent and colourless in all their parts ; but by 

 means of infusions of the colouring matter of vege- 

 tables or animal colours, first made use of by Baron 

 Gleichen, the alimentary structures of many have 

 been made out ; and, partly by being seen against the 

 vessels filled with the coloured infusions, and partly 

 by other means, muscular tissues have been traced. 

 Indigo, sap-green, and carmine have been found to 

 be the colours best adapted for this purpose, and 

 that they should tinge the vessels of these minute 

 creatures to their most delicate ramifications shows 

 how fine the division of the colours must be. 



The indigo and sap-green are direct vegetable 

 substances ; and we need not wonder why the ani- 

 malcules swallow them with avidity, because putrid 

 vegetable matter is both the nidus in which they are 

 brought to maturity, and their food during life. But 

 that species which breed and feed on vegetable in- 

 fusions only, and which we have every reason to con- 

 clude are generically or, at all events, specifically 

 different from those that are bred in animal matter, 

 should feed on carmine, which is usually regarded 

 as an animal substance, is a different matter, and 

 throws a sort of new light upon the nature of carmine, 

 or rather of cochineal, of which carmine is a prepa- 

 ration. Cochineal is obtained from the coccus cacti, 

 and from that insect in substance ; but still the most 

 rational view of the matter (and it is much strength- 

 ened by this fact of the animalculi swallowing it with 

 avidity) is that the colouring matter of cochineal is, 

 like wax and lac, a vegetable substance, absorbed by 

 the insect, and retained for a particular purpose, but 

 not assimilated or animalised. 



The result of those observations has been a sort of 

 double means of arrangement in the animalcular pro- 

 vince ; those that have one stomach and an intestinal 

 canal, and those which have many insular stomachs : 

 first, according to internal structure ; and secondly, 

 from the external structure ; those which have ap- 

 pendages to the body, and those which have none. 

 There is still a third means of classification ; those 

 which have the body covered with a simple integu- 

 ment, and those which have it covered with a shell, 

 or second coat of some description or other; the 

 first of these are called nuda (naked), and the 

 second loricata (clad in armour). 



The first and second of these means of classifi- 

 cation harmonise tolerably well, so as to admit of a 

 division of the greater number into two classes : 

 polygastrica, or many-stomached ; and rotatoria, or 

 those which have appendages that seem to revolve. 

 These last are curious instruments, and differ from 

 those of all the larger animals, except that there is, 

 perhaps, a slight resemblance to them in the spines of 



the echina; or sea-hogs. These are often placed in 

 the circumference of a circle ; and as each of them 

 has a rotatory motion on its base while at an angle, 

 and thus describes a little circle with its base points, 

 the whole circle appears to revolve round like a 

 wheel, very rapidly, as the apparent revolution of the 

 whole takes place in the same time as the real rota- 

 tion of a single one. See POLYGASTRICA, ROTATORIA, 

 and VIBRIO, for the details. 



ANISANTHUS. A family of Cape bulbs, usually 

 grown in a frame or greenhouse. Linnaean class and 

 order, "IViandria monogynia. Natural order, Irideee. 

 These beautiful plants were formerly ranked with 

 their near neighbours the antholyzas and gladiolus, 

 but separated by Mr. Sweet. Their culture is similar 

 to that of other Cape bulbs of the same character, viz. 

 keeping them in a frame, either with or without pots, 

 of peat-earth and sand. 



ANISE. The Tragium anisum of Linnaeus, placed 

 by him in the second order of his fifth class, viz. 

 Pentandria Digynia. Natural order, Umbelliferce. 

 Generic character: involucrum neutral ; fruit, oblong- 

 ly egg-shaped, downy, raphe smooth. This is a highly 

 aromatic herb, and in former times was much prized 

 as a condiment in food, either used green, with other 

 herbs, or the seeds alone. x As a salad or pot-herb it 

 is now but in little requet, its seeds only being used 

 by the confectioner and druggist. 



It is cultivated on light finely prepared ground in 

 an open situation ; the seed is sown pretty thickly, 

 either in drills a foot apart, or broad-cast on a border 

 about the middle of April. During growth the crop 

 is kept free from weeds, and the seeds are gathered 

 when ripe. 



Aniseed tree. 



ANISEED TREE, of which the above is a 

 figure, called by Linnaeus Illicium anisatum, from 

 its scent being like that of aniseed. Class and 

 order, Potyandria Polygynia. Natural order, Mag- 

 noliacceE. Generic character : calyx three-sexpe- 

 taled, deciduous ; sepals unequal ; corolla nine or 

 more petals, unequal , stamina, inserted on the re- 

 ceptacle ; filaments very short; anthers erect, oblong, 



