ACH 



ACH 



ACETITES, a genus of salts formed by 

 the acetous acid. 



ACETOUS acid. See ACETIC ACID. 



AC HANI A, in botany, a genus of the 

 Monadelphia Polyandria class, and the 

 natural order of Columniferae. There are 

 three species, viz. the A. malvaviscus, 

 scarlet achania, or bastard hibiscus, which 

 is a native of Mexico and Jamaica ; culti- 

 vated here in 1714 by the Dutchess of 

 Beaufort,and flowering through the great- 

 est part of the year : the mollis, or woolly 

 achania, a native of South America and the 

 West India islands, found in Jamaica by 

 Houstoun, in 1730, and introduced in 1780 

 by B. Bewick, Esq. and flowering in Au- 

 gust and September : and the pilosa, or 

 hairy achania, a native of Jamaica, intro- 

 duced in 1780 by Mr. G. Alexander, and 

 flowering in November. Achania is gene- 

 rally propagated by cuttings, which are 

 planted in pots of light earth, plunged in- 

 to a gentle hot-bed, and kept from the air 

 till they take root, when they should be 

 gradually inured to the open air. They 

 must be preserved in winter in a moderate 

 stove ; and, kept warm in summer, they 

 Will flower, and sometimes ripen fruit. 



ACHERNER, in astronomy, a star of 

 the first magnitude in the southern extre- 

 mity of the constellation Eridanus. See 

 the article BRIDA^US. 



ACHILLEA, milfoil, in botany, so call- 

 ed from Achilles, who is supposed to have 

 acquired some knowledge of botany from 

 his master Chiron, and to have used this 

 plant for the cure of wounds and ulcers ; 

 a genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Su- 

 perflua class of plants, and of the natural 

 order of Composite Discoidese. There are 

 27 species, of which the most remarkable 

 are the ptarmica, or sneezewort, M. grow- 

 ing wild in all the temperate parts of Eu- 

 rope, found in Britain, not uncommonly in 

 meadows, by the sides of ditches, on the 

 balks of corn fields, in moist woods and 

 shady' places. The shoots are put into 

 salads, and the roots, being hot and biting, 

 are used for the tooth-ache, whence the 

 plant has been called bastard pelhtory, 

 and, on account of the form of the leaf, 

 goose-tongue : the powder of the dried 

 leaves, used as snuff, provokes sneezing, 

 whence the name : in Siberia, a decoction 

 of the whole herb is said to be successfully 

 used in internal hemorrhages ; of this plant 

 there is a variety with double flowers, call- 

 ed batchelor's buttons; it flowers in July 

 and August, and makes a tolerable ap- 

 pearance ; and the millet'ollum, common 

 M. cr yarrow, abundant in pastures and 

 fey the sides of roads, flowering from June 



to September: mixed instead of hop* by 

 the inhabitants of Dalecarlia in their ale, 

 in order to give it an inebriating quality : 

 recommended by Anderson, in his Essays 

 on Agriculture, for cultivation, though 

 thought to be a noxious weed in pastures; 

 the bruised herb, fresh, is recommended 

 by Linnaeus as an excellent vulnerary and 

 styptic, and by foreign physicians in he- 

 morrhages, and thought by Dr. Hill to be 

 excellent in dysenteries, 'when adminis- 

 tered in the form of a strong decoction. 

 An ointment is made of it for the piles, 

 and for the scab in sheep ; and an essen- 

 tial oil is extracted from the flowers ; but 

 it is not used in the present practice. 



ACHRAS, or SAPOTA-PLUM, in botany, 

 a genus of the Hexandria Monogyniu 

 class, and of the natural order of Dumo- 

 sae. There are four species, viz. The 

 mammosa, or mamme sapota, otherwise 

 called nippled S. or American manne- 

 lade ; growing in America to the height 

 of thirty or forty feet, with leaves a foot 

 long, and three inches broad in the mid- 

 dle, cream-coloured flowers, and large 

 oval fruit, containing a thick, lusciou* 

 pulp, called natural marmelade. This tree 

 is planted for the fruit in Jamaica, Barba- 

 does, Cuba,and most of the WestJIndia isl- 

 ands, and was cultivated here by Mr. Mil- 

 ler in 1739. Of this there is a variety call- 

 ed the bully, or nisberry bully-tree, be- 

 cause it is the tallest of all the trees in the 

 woods : it is esteemed one of the best 

 timber trees in Jamaica. 2. The sapota^ 

 which grows to the height of sixty or se- 

 venty feet, without knots or branches, and 

 bears a round, yellow fruit, bigger than a. 

 quince, which smells well, and is of an a- 

 greeable taste. It is common at Panama, 

 and some other places in the Spanish 

 West Indies, but not to be found in many 

 of the English settlements. It was culti- 

 vated here by Mr. Miller in 1739. 3. The 

 dissecta, or cloven-flowered S. cultivated 

 in Malabar for the fruit, which is of the 

 form and size of an olive, having a pulp 

 of a sweetish acid flavour. Its leaves are 

 used for cataplasms to tumours, bruised 

 and boiled with the root of curcuma and 

 the leaves of ginger ; supposed to be a 

 native of the Philippine islands, and pro- 

 bably growing in China, and found by 

 Forster flowering in September, in the 

 island of Tongatabu. 4. The salicifolia, 

 or white willow S. called in Jamaica the 

 white-bully-tree, or galimeta wood, which 

 supplies good Umber. The bark of che 

 sapota and mamnosa is very astringent, 

 and is called corner Jamaicensis. Th'-s was 

 once supposed to be the true Jesuits barfc* 



