ACORUS. 



a quarter of a rod asunder, and six inches 

 apart in the rows ; dibbling them in, zigzag, 

 alternately on either side a line stretched 

 tightly on the surface, with blunt-pointed dib- 

 bles, leu.ing a little mould fall down to the 

 bottoms of the holes, to prevent water lodgin 

 round them, and burying them about two 

 inches beneath the surface. Each square rod, 

 when planted in this way, takes 132 acorns, 

 nearly a pint, when they are middle-sized, 

 which is equal to two statute bushels and a 

 half on an acre. The expense, in England, of 

 planting acorns in this manner is about 5s. an 

 acre. See Pi. VN 



ACORUS, from the Greek a, privative, and 

 w, the pupil of the eye. The botanical name 

 o't a plant of the thistle kind, that produces the 

 drug called in the shop ('ulumits nrnniuticus. It 

 is found abundantly in the neighbourhood of 

 freshwater marshes. The ancient practice of 

 screwing the floors with the leaves of these 

 sweet : still kept up in some of our 



cathedral churches upon certain high festivals. 

 The plant, which belongs to the natural order 

 Artiacut il" unties luxuriantly in loose, moist 

 soils, and sends forth many deep-green, long 

 sword-shaped leaves from its perennial, creep- 

 ! horizontal stems. It seldom flowers, 

 but the blossoms which it sends forth are of a 

 greenish colour. The root, or more properly 

 the stem, is the part which, when dried, is 

 used medicinally, occasionally as a stimulant. 

 It is slightly acrid and aromatic. (T/mmsnnx 

 Dfimnaary.) 



ACRE (aecre, Sax. Acre, Lye says, is 

 common to all the European language . 

 Die.). He might have -her, that it is 



an Eastern word : and that agr y a/euro, and ukko- 

 ran, denote in the Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic, 

 a field, a husbandman. s,> the Saxon aeccep- 

 roon, a husbandman. Wachter, in his G/n.i- 

 sary, gives ukerman, a day-labourer. (TudcTs 

 .) In Shakspeares King Lear, we 

 have 



< h ev try acre in the high grown field, 

 And bring him to our eye." 



The prevai ing and standard measure of land 

 in Britain. \n acre in England contains 4 

 square rood: ; a rood, 40 perches, rods, or 

 poles, 5A yartis, or 16$ feet each, according to 

 the statute ir the act passed in 1824, for the 

 equalizatioD of weights and measures through- 

 out the Uniied Kingdom, which is in this in- 

 stance confirmatory of the old law of England. 

 But in some parts of England there are other 

 measures under the same designation of acre. 

 For example, in Devonshire, and part of So- 

 merset, 5 yards (instead of 5) have been 

 reckoned to a perch ; in Cornwall, 6 yards 

 (anciently called the Woodland perch) ; in 

 Lancashire, 7 yards ; in Cheshire and Stafford- 

 shire 8 yards; in the Isle of Purbeck, and 

 some parts of Devonshire, 15 feet and 1 inch. 

 In the common fields of Wiltshire and the 

 neighbouring counties, 120 poles, or 3 roods, 

 were reckoned to an acre. 



The Irish acre is 7840 square yards, and is 

 equal to 1 acre, 2 roods, and 19 poles, nearly, 

 of English measure. 



The Scofch acre contains 5760 square Scotch 



ACRE 



ells, and is equal to 1 acre, 1 rood, 2 poles 

 nearly, of English measure. 

 The following Table shows the comparative- 

 quantity of each of the above measures : 



A. R. P. 



120 3 20 Devonshire customary measure, 1 



1192 26 Isle of Purbeck, ditto, 



84 4 Cornish or Woodland ditto, k^ 1 to 



61 2 37 Lancashire or Irish ditto, }. 



47 1 2 Cheshire and Staffordshire ditto, statute 

 133 2 Wiltshire tenantry ditto, acres> 



79 1 6 Scotch measure, 



The French acre, or arpent, according to Mr. 

 Greave's calculation, consists of 100 perches 

 of 22 feet each, amounting to 48,400 squar 

 French feet, which are equal to 51,691 square 

 English fleet, or very near one acre, and three 

 quarters of a rood, English measure. The 

 Strasburg acre is about half an English acre. 



Table exhibiting the Number of Plants which 

 nniy be raised on a Ptrch of Land, at different 

 distances : 



In a perch are 272$ square feet, or 39,204 

 square inches. A perch will contain 



