ARECA ARGONAUT A. 



191 



ARECA (Linnaeus). A family consisting of ten 

 species of palms, common in the East Indies. In the 

 Linnaean system it is placed in Moncecia Mona- 

 delphia, and in the natural order Palnue. Generic 

 character : flowers seated closely on the spadix, upper 

 ones male, lower ones female ; spatha, double, mem- 

 branous ; clayx, three-clefted ; corolla three-petaled ; 

 stigmas sitting ; fruit a fibrous one-seeded drupe ; 

 albumen chewable. The areca nut is a necessary of 

 life in India ; being chewed with a leaf of the pepper 

 betel, qualified by a little chunam (lime). Its use 

 promotes saliva, exhilarates the nerves, gives a fine 

 colour to the lips, and sweetens the breath. It is 

 universally used, and never omitted to be presented 

 as a sign of welcome at entertainments. The tender 

 heart leaves are sometimes used like those of the 

 cabbage. 



A REN ARIA Sanderling. A genus of birds, 

 also described under the name Calidris. In their 

 characters they are tolerably distinct, and hold a 

 middle place between the sandpipers and snipes, 

 without having the characters of either. The form 

 of the body resembles that of the sandpipers, though 

 still more slightly made than these birds; the bill, 

 again, has considerable resemblance to the bills of 

 the snipes, only it is shorter in proportion. It is 

 compressed laterally in the basal part, and depressed 

 or flattened towards the tip, where it ends bluntly, but 

 without any nail or other hardened extremity. It is 

 flexible throughout its length, and, as there is reason 

 to believe, sensitive ; and therefore the probability is, 

 that the birds find their food by boring into the sand 

 close to the line of the tide, which they follow during 

 the greater part of the year in small flocks, and with 

 shrill and wailing cries. The feet are feeble, and 

 entirely destitute of hind toes, but the birds are 

 powerful on the wing. There is only one British 

 species ; but as some points in its history are a little 

 ambiguous, we must refer to the article SANDERLING. 



ARETHUSA (Linnaeus). A genus of two species, 

 tuberous-rooted herbs, natives of foreign countries. 

 Linnaean class and order Gynandria Monandria; na- 

 tural order, QrclMece. Generic character : sepals 

 five ; helmeted, cohering at the base, swelling 

 during growth ; labellum united to the base of 

 the column, concave, crested with interior lines; 

 column long-jointed, linear, dilated at top, membra- 

 nous, somewhat lobed ; anthers terminal, without being 

 latticed. These, like almost all the genera of the 

 order, are interesting objects of floral elegance and 

 fine colour. The only drawback on the possession 

 of them is their difficult culture, which is accomplished 

 by planting them in loose wet peaty soil, keeping 

 them in a frame well exposed to the sun. 



ARGEMONE (Tournefort). Flower-border an- 

 nuals, natives of Mexico, and in class and order Polyan- 

 dna Monogynia; natural order PapaveraccaB. Generic 

 characters : calyx of two or three sepals, each sharp 

 pointed, deciduous; corolla of four or six petals; stamens 

 below the germen ; anthers oblong, two-celled ; style or 

 stigma, headed, lobed, persisting ; capsule of one cell, 

 opening at top; placenta like a thread, the apex vaulted; 

 stigma cohering and persisting; seeds round and 

 rough with furrows. This genus is very nearly allied 

 to the poppy, flowers as showy, and equally fleeting. 

 ARGENTINA Argentine. A genus of mala- 

 copterygeoiis, or soft-finned fishes, belonging to the 

 salmon family, and having many of the characters, 

 both external and internal, of the sea trout. It has 



the same silvery and glistening appearance in the 

 scales as these fishes, and that lustre in them readily 

 distinguishes them from those which inhabit the fresh 

 water. It is remakable that this appearance, even in 

 the salmon, which is a native of the fresh water, is 

 acquired only in the sea, and that it fades during the 

 annual excursions of those fishes up the rivers. So 

 completely, indeed, has the silvery lustre, and even 

 the scales in which it appears, vanished by the time 

 that the spawn is wholly deposited, that salmon are 

 then popularly known by the name of " black fish." 

 In the purchase of salmon, the lustre of the scales is 

 thus a good rule for those who are not otherwise 

 acquainted with the qualities of the fish. A lustreless 

 fish is at all events poor and bad, and if very lustreless 

 it is even unwholesome. On the other hand, if the 

 silvery lustre is brilliant, the fish may be depended 

 on as both wholesome and excellent. 



The air-bladders of most fishes have this silvery 

 lustre, but it is more remarkable in the argentine than 

 in any other species ; so much so that these vessels 

 in the above genus of fishes are more prized by the 

 manufacturers of artificial pearls than any other sub- 

 stance which they employ. This lustrous substance 

 gives the pearly play of colour, and the isinglass of 

 the vessels form so good a cement, that pearls thus 

 prepared, in substance, and not mere coated glass 

 bubbles as the inferior ones are, are with great 

 difficulty distinguished from real ones. 



The argentine has the mouth small, compressed 

 horizontally, and without any teeth in the jaws ; but 

 the tongue is furnished with pretty strong recurved 

 teeth, and there is a transverse row of the same on 

 the palate. The gill-flap contains six rays. There 

 are two dorsal fins, the second of which is small and 

 fleshy, without any rays. The stomach is internally 

 black. 



There is but one known species, an inhabitant of 

 the Mediterranean, though there are many other 

 fishes which closely resemble it in a variety of their 

 characters. Its food is not very well known ; but 

 from the smallness of the mouth, and the absence of 

 teeth in the jaws, it is probable that it feeds on small, 

 soft, and naked marine animals. Its flesh is whole- 

 some, though a little dry and insipid. 



ARGONAUTA. (Linnaeus, Lamarck). This 

 interesting and elegant shell is generally well known 

 to collectors by its trivial name of the Paper Nautilus ; 

 some authors indeed have suggested the propriety of 

 calling it the Argo nauta papyracea, as being more de- 

 scriptive of its delicate paper-like structure ; but as 

 this shell was known and described with considerable 

 accuracy by Aristotle, Pliny, and other early writers 

 on natural history, the present name should be pre- 

 served, and with the greater reason, as it was given 

 with a classical allusion to the celebrated expedition 

 of Jason in the ship Argo, to recover the golden 

 fleece ; in which all those who accompanied him were 

 called Argonauts, and to whom the art of navi- 

 gation is poetically described as having been pointed 

 out, in the skilful management exhibited by the in- 

 stinctive little sailor, inhabiting the Argomuita, 

 while steering its frail bark through ocean's trackless 

 paths. 



" For thus to man tlie voice of nature spake, 



Go, from the creatures thy instruction take, 



Learn of the little Nautilus to sail, 



Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale." Pope. 



In fine calm weather when the bosom of the sea is 



