160 



ANT HOPHYL LITE ANTHUS. 



tuberous plant?, they require to be kept very dry 

 when in a dormant state. There are three species. 



ANTHOPHYLLITE. A massive mineral of a 

 brownish colour ; sometimes also crystallised, in thin, 

 flat six-sided prisms, streaked lengthwise. It has a 

 false metallic lustre, glistening and pearly. Its crystals 

 are transparent, but not sufficiently hard to scratch 

 glass. 



ANTHOXANTHUM spring grass. One 'of 

 the most useful of our pasture grasses, belonging to 

 the Linnaean class and order, Diandria Digynia. Na- 

 tural order, Gramineee. Generic character: panicle 

 formed like a spike ; calyx, two-valved, three- 

 flowered ; corolla two inferior one-valved bristles ; 

 middle two-valved perfect, valves unequally acute ; 

 stamina, filaments like hairs ; anthers, two-celled ; 

 styles, two, hairy. The sweet scent of hay is attri- 

 buted to the presence of this grass ; but although this 

 is not entirely the case, it is certainly one of our 

 sweetest grasses. There are four species all culti- 

 vated ; but the difficulty of cultivating the seeds 

 renders it rather costly for extensive use. It is one of 

 the most early grasses, flowering early in April, and 

 hence its name. 



ANTHRACID^E (Leach). A family of insects 

 of the order Diptera ; the characters of which are, 

 body short ; wings spreading widely out ; antennae 

 distant, and two sometimes three-jointed ; the head as 

 high as the thorax. Stephens, in his Catalogue of 

 British Insects, enumerates two genera as belonging 

 to this family, and found in England. The Lomatia 

 of Meigen and the Anthrax of Fabricius ; to the ac- 

 curate pen and pencil of Curtis we are indebted for 

 the natural characters of Anthrax, which illustrates 

 the 9th plate of his " Illustrations of British Entomo- 

 logy" antennae projecting, remote three-jointed, 

 the first joint cylindrical, and club-shaped, twice the 

 length of the second, with long and thick tufts of 

 hair ; the second is *early globular and hairy ; and 

 the third nearly naked, somewhat pear-shaped, with a 

 long style terminated by a tuft of hair, the style being 

 one or two-jointed ; maxilla horny and acute, nearly 

 as long as the labrum ; palpi two, which are received 

 into the cavity of the mouth, simple, cylindric, hairy, 

 attached to the side of the maxilla near the base, halt' 

 their length ; mentum cylindrical, hollow above, to 

 receive the tongue and labrum. The lips fleshy, ob- 

 long, and extend as far as the tongue. 



The A. ornata (HotFmansegg) is black and 

 shining ; the head covered with black hair between 

 the eyes, silvery behind, clypeus and under side of 

 head with golden hair ; thorax covered with ochre- 

 ous coloured hair before, nearly naked in the centre; 

 scutellum brownish ; abdomen covered with short 

 golden hair, the sides being surrounded with alternate 

 fasciculi of fine white and black hair ; third and fourth 

 segments with white fasciae interrupted in the middle ; 

 sixth with a white spot in the centre ; last joint very 

 white with hair ; wings transparent, with numerous 

 nerves, and having a brunneous cloud ext ending two- 

 thirds the length, situated at the posterior margin, 

 with a transverse transparent spot near the base, a 

 larger one in the centre, and two others near the mar- 

 gin at the union of the nerves. This species was first 

 discovered by J. C. Dale, Esq. at Parley Heath, on 

 the borders of Dorset and Hants, in July 1821, and 

 afterwards in September 1823. It was found settling 

 upon heath, banks, and on the ground where the turl 

 had been pared off; it has also been captured by 



Mr. Bentley in the same neighbourhood. Another 

 species, A. flava, ( Hoffmansegg) was also captured in 

 the beginning of July 1822, flying amongst rushes, 

 and alighting upon the sand near the sea-shore at 

 Covehithe, Suffolk, and A. circumdata of Hoffmansegg 

 ias been taken in Devon on the borders of woods in 

 June ; they are all very rare, and the only species 

 known to inhabit Britain. 



The anthracidse fly in the sunshine and subsist 

 on the juices of flowers. 



ANTHRACITE. This mineral, which is now 

 ;mployed to a considerable extent as a substitute for 

 common fuel, especially in the burning of lime, very 

 much resembles coal in its external appearance. It 

 is sometimes called glance-coal, from the German 

 word glanz, which it derives from its glistening lustrous 

 character. Anthracite burns without flame, and con- 

 tains more than ninety per cent, of pure carbon, so 

 that it may in fact be considered as mineral charcoal. 

 Mr. Weaver, in a paper on the geology of the south 

 of Ireland, has described vast beds of anthracite 

 occurring in clay-slate and grey-wacke. He says 

 that the most considerable collieries have yielded 

 25,000 tons annually, and adds, that all the coal of 

 the province of Munster, with the exception of that 

 of the county of Clare, is of the same sort. It is 

 remarkable, too, that the anthracite, and a slate highly 

 charged with pyrites, which accompanies it, are full 

 of impressions of plants of the fern tribe, such as 

 eqwseta and catamites, analogous to those found in 

 the true coal formations ; this is an important circum- 

 stance with reference to the history of anthracite, and 

 gives strong countenance to the opinion that this 

 substance, even in the oldest of the stratified rocks, 

 is of vegetable origin. 



That species of anthracite termed slaty glance-coal, 

 is found in several floetz districts in Scotland, espe- 

 cially in West Lothian, Fifeshire, and Ayrshire, and 

 in the island of Arran. In similar rocks in England, 

 as in the southern parts of Brecknock, Caermarthen, 

 and Pembroke ; and near Walsal, in Staffordshire : 

 also at several places in Ireland. On the continent 

 it is met with at Kongsberg in Norway, where it is 

 associated with native silver, in veins that traverse 

 mica-slate : in the Hart?., in veins of red and brown 

 iron-ore, which traverse grey-wacke ; and in mineral 

 veins at Schemnitz in Hungary. It also occurs abun- 

 dantly in the United States of America. 



ANTHROCOTHERIUM. A genus of fossil, 

 extinct, Pachydcrmata, for the discovery of the exist- 

 ence of which we are indebted to the researches of 

 the baron Cnvier. This genus appears to have held 

 an intermediate place between the paUeotheria, ano- 

 plotheria, and swine. The teeth exhibit many points 

 of agreement with the anoplotherium ; but the large 

 and projecting canine teeth leave no doubt of its 

 having been a perfectly distinct genus. Two species 

 were found in the lignites of Cadibone, near Savone, 

 and a third in the fresh-water formation in the envi- 

 rons of Agen. The first approached the rhinoceros 

 in size, the second was considerably smaller, and the 

 third rests upon the fragment of a jaw exhibiting 

 certain peculiarities, which was found ia-lhe depart- 

 ment of Lot et Garonne. 



ANTHUS Pipit. A genus of insectivorous 

 birds, having in their general characters no incon- 

 siderable resemblance to the wagtails ; but not being 

 so exclusively insectivorous in their feeding as these, 

 and not so aquatic in their habits. Their haunts are 



