298 GLOSSARY. 



the digestive process, and taken up by the lacteals or spongioles, 

 (chyle or sap carrying vessels.) 



Alkali, (plural alkalies,) a substance that has the property of com- 

 bining with, and neutralizing the properties of, acids, producing salts 

 by the combination. Alkalies change the vegetable blues and pur- 

 ples to green, red to purple, and yellow to brown. Caustic alkali, 

 an alkali deprived of its carbonic acid, being thereby rendered more 

 caustic and violent in its operation. This term is usually applied to 

 pure potash. Fixed alkali, an alkali that emits no characteristic 

 smell, and cannot be volatilized or evaporated without great ditii- 

 culty. Potash and soda are called the fi.xed alkalies. Soda is also 

 called a dossil, or Mineral Alkali, and potash, the Vegetable Al- 

 kali. Volatile alkali, an elastic, transparent, colorless, and con- 

 sequently invisible, gas, known by the name of ammonia, or spirits 

 of hartshorn. 



Alkaline Earths are so called from their possessing most of the qual- 

 ities of alkalies, as lime, magnesia, strontia, baryta. 



Alluvial, relating to alluvium. 



Alluvial Soils, formed by the action of water, as river flats, compos- 

 ed of various and heterogeneous materials. 



Alluvium, depositions of soil made by water. 



Alternate, reciprocal ; by turns ; one after another. 



Alternate crops, crops changed yearly. See p. 152. 



Alternate husbandry, a system of rotation of crops. 



Alternating, raising different crops, in succession. 



Alum, a compound of sulphuric acid, alumine, and potash, or am- 

 monia. 



Alumine, the earth of which alum is formed ; pure argillaceous clay. 



Amber, a yellowish, translucent, inflammable substance, hard enough 

 to receive a fine polish, capable of being wrought into various orna- 

 mental articles, and forming an ingredient in some varnishes and 

 lackers. 



Ammonia, volatile alkali. See Alkali. 



Ammoniacal, containing ammonia. 



Ammoniacal salts, salts containing ammonia. 



Anbury, a disease of turnips and cabbages ; tumors upon the roots, 

 caused by insects. 



Angle, see Circle. 



Animalcule, in its general acceptation, a little animal ; but, since the 

 invention of the microscope, the term is particularly applied to the 

 myriads of insects, too small to be seen by the naked eye, which 

 are discovered by that instrument. 



Animal Manures, aW dead animal matters, as fish, bone, horn. Veg- 

 eio-animal Ma7iu»es, stable and yard dung, partaking of vegetable 

 and animal matters. 



Annual Plants, such as flower, seed, and die, the year they are raised. 



Anthracite, mineral coal, containing no bitumen. 



Antiseptic, a term applied to those substances which check or resist 

 putrefaction, as salt, &c. 



Aquatic Plants, plants growing in water. 



Arable, fit for ploughing, or tillage. 



