AUA 



AGA 



woman may be admitted a witness for 

 the brother of her deceased husband, she 

 is noi allowed to marry him. 



AFFINITY, in chemistry, the attraction 

 manifest between the parts of bodies in 

 chemical combination is, by many authors, 

 distinguished by this name. See CHE- 

 MISTRY. 



AFFIRMATION, an indulgence allow- 

 ed by law to the people called Quakers, 

 who, in cases where an oath is required 

 from others, may make a solemn affirma- 

 tion that what they say is true. But their 

 affirmation is confined to civil cases, and 

 is not allowed in any criminal cause, nor 

 with regard to places of profit or trust 

 under the government. 



AFFRAY, or AFFRAY .VENT, in law, for- 

 merly signified the crime of affrighting 

 other pei-sons, by appearing in unusual ar- 

 mour, brandishing a weapon, &c. But, at 

 present, affray denotes a skirmish or 

 fighting between two or more ; and there 

 must be a stroke given, otherwise it is no 

 affray. 



AFFRONTEE, in heraldry, an appella- 

 tion giving to animals facing one another 

 on an escutcheon, a kind of bearing, 

 which is otherwise called confrouffe, and 

 stands opposed to adossce. 



AFT, in the sea language, the same 

 with abaft. See ABAFT. 



AFZELIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Didynamia Angiospermia class and order : 

 the calyx is quinquepartite, the corolla 

 campanulated,andihe capsule rotundated 

 with hemispheric receptacles. There is 

 but one species, found in Africa, near the 

 equinoctial. 



AGAPANTHUS, in botany, a genus of 

 the Hexandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der, of the natural order of Liliacae : the 

 calyx is a spathe ; the corolla is one pe- 

 talled ; the stamina are six filaments, in- 

 serted into the throat, shorter than the 

 corolla ; the anthers kidney-shaped and 

 incumbent ; the pistillum is a superior 

 germ ; the style filiform, of the length of 

 three stamens; the stigma simple or tri- 

 fid ; the pericarpium isan oblong-capsule ; 

 the seeds numerous, oblong, compressed, 

 and enlarged with a membrane. There is 

 one species, viz. A. umbellatus, or African 

 blue lily. This is the African tube-rose 

 hyacinth, with a blue umbellated flow- 

 er. The root of this plant is compos- 

 ed of thick fleshy fibres ; from the 

 same head arises a cluster of leaves, 

 which are thick and succulent, and of a 

 dark green colour. Between these issues 

 the flower stalk, supporting an umbel of 

 blue flowers in a sheath, and oach flower 



VOL. F 



standing on a pedicle, about an inch long. 

 The umbel being large, the flowers nu- 

 merous, and of a light blue colour, make 

 a fine appearance. They come out at the 

 end of August, or beginning of Septem- 

 ber, and frequently continue in beauty till 

 spring. It is a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, from whence it was brought to 

 Holland, and in 1692 it was cultivated at 

 Hampton court. 



This plant is propagated by offsets, ta- 

 ken at the latter end of June, planted in 

 separate pots, with light kitchen -garden 

 earth, and placed in a shady situation. 

 In five weeks the offsets will put off new 

 roots, and the pots should then be re- 

 moved to a more sunny situation, and have 

 more water. In September they will put 

 out their flower-stalks, and toward the 

 end of the month the flowers will begin 

 to open, and should be removed under 

 shelter in bad weather, but in good wea- 

 ther exposed to the free air. Toward the 

 end of October they should be removed 

 to the green-house, and have the benefit 

 of free air, and be occasionally watered 

 during winter, in mild weather, but in 

 frost they should be kept dry. 



AGARIC, in botany, a genus of the or- 

 der of fungi, and class of Cryptogamia: 

 the pileus or cap has gills underneath, 

 and the gills differ in substance from the 

 rest of the plant, being composed of two 

 lamina, and the seeds are in the gills. 

 There are nearly 400 species. Dr. Wi- 

 thering distributes them into three gene- 

 ral classes, comprehending those which 

 have central stems, those with lateral 

 stems, and those which have no stems; 

 and he again subdivides the two formei* 

 classes into such as have solid, and such 

 as have hollow stems, with decurrent, 

 fixed, and loose gills, respectively. Un- 

 der these heads, he arranges the species 

 by the colour of the gills, Into those whose 

 gills are white, brown, red, buff', yellow, 

 grey, green, and purple As this ingeni- 

 ous author has formed a system, that 

 serves to facilitate the investigation and 

 description of the several species of Aga- 

 rics, we shall here give a brief sketch of 

 the principles upon which it is founded. 

 Agarics are composed of a cap or pile-is, 

 with gills underneath, and are either with 

 or without stems. The stems are either 

 central or lateral. They have also a root, 

 which is more or less apparent, and some 

 of them, in their unfolded state, wholly 

 enclosed in a incmbranaceous or leather- 

 like case, called a wrapper. Some of 

 them have also a curtain, or thin mem- 

 brane, extending from the stem to the 



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