AGG 



AGI 



golden age, the second the silver age, the 

 third the brazen age, the fourth the iron 

 age. Not unlike these are the four ages 

 of the world, as computed by the East In- 

 dians, who extend them to a monstrous 

 length. 



AGE, in law, signifies certain periods 

 of life, when persons of both sexes are 

 enabled to do certain acts, which, for want 

 of years and d'scrt lion, they were incapa- 

 ble of before. Thus, a man at twelve 

 years of age ought, to take the oath of al- 

 legiance to the king, in a lect: at four- 

 teen, .vhich is his age of discretion, he 

 nu.y consent to marriage, choose his guar- 

 dian, and claim his Kinds held in socage. 



Twenty-one is called full age, a man 

 or woman being then capable of acting 

 for themselves, of managing their affairs, 

 nuking contracts, disposing of their es- 

 tates, and 'he like ; which before that age 

 they could not do. A woman is dowable 

 at nine years of age, may consent to mar- 

 ry at twelve, and at fourteen choose her 

 guardian, and at twenty -one may alienate 

 her lands. 



AGE, in military affairs. A young man 

 must be fourteen years of age, before he 

 can become un officer in the line, or be 

 entered as a cadet at Woolwich. Persons 

 may be enlisted as soldiers from sixteen 

 to forty-iive ; after the latter age, every 

 inhabitant is exempted from serving in the 

 militia. 



AGENT, in iaw, a person appointed to 

 transact the business of another. It is a 

 principle of law, that whenever a man has- 

 a power, as owner, to do a thing, he may, 

 as consistent with his ngiit, do it by de- 

 puty, either as agent, factor, or servant. If 

 a person be appointed a general agent, 

 _the principal is bound by all his acts. 

 But an agent, specially appointed, cannot 

 bind Ins principal by an act whereby he 

 exceeds his authority. 



AGERATUM, maudlin, in botany, a 

 genus of the Syngenesla Polygamia JE- 

 qualis class of plants, with a monopetalous 

 personated flower, and an oblong mem- 

 branaceous fruit, divided into two cells, 

 which contain a number of minute seeds, 

 affixed to a placenta. There are two 

 species. 



AGGREGATE, in botany, is a term 

 used to express those flowers which are 

 corn;. used of parts or florets, so united or 

 incorporated by means cither of the recep- 

 tacle or calyx, that no one of them can be 

 taken away without destroying the form 

 of the whole. They are opposed to sim- 

 ple flowers that have, no such common 

 part, which is either the receptacle or the 



calyx, and are usually divided into seveu 

 kinds, viz. the aggregate, properly so call- 

 ed, whose receptacle is dilated, and whose 

 florets are supported by foot-stalks ; such 

 are the blue daisy, thrift, or sea-pink, &c.: 

 the compound, which consist of several 

 florets, that are placed, without partial 

 peduncles, on a common dilated recepta- 

 cle, and within a common perianth mm ; 

 and where each floret hath its proper ca- 

 lyx ; it is also a perianthium : umbellate, 

 when the flower consists of many florets 

 placed on fastigate peduncles, proceeding 

 from the same stem or receptacle ; and 

 which, though of different lengths, rise to 

 such a height as to form a regular head 

 or umbel, flat, convex, or concave : cy- 

 mous, when several fastigate peduncles 

 proceed from the same centre, like the 

 umbel, and rise to nearly an even height ; 

 but, unlike the umbel, the secondary or 

 partial peduncles proceed without any 

 regular order, as in sambuctis, viburnum, 

 &c. : amentaceous, which have a long 

 common receptacle ; along these are dis- 

 posed squamae or scales, which form that 

 sort of calyx called the Amentum : glu- 

 mose, which proceed from a common 

 husky calyx belonging to grasses, called 

 Gluma, many of which flowers are placed 

 on a common receptacle called Rachis, 

 collecting the florets into the spikes, as 

 triticum, hordeum, bolium, &c. : and spa- 

 diceous, which have a common recepta- 

 cle, protruded from within a common ca- 

 lyx, called Spatha, along which are dis- 

 posed several florets. Such a receptacle 

 is called a Spadix, and is either branched, 

 as in p ham be ; or simple, as in narcissus, 

 &c. In this last case, the florets may be 

 disposed all around it; as in calla, draco- 

 nitum, &c.; on the lower part of it, as in 

 arum, &c. ; or on one side, as in zostera, 

 &c. These flowers have generally no 

 partial calyx. 



AGGIIEGATE, in the Linnsean system 

 of botany, is one of the natural methods 

 of classing plants, and comprehending 1 

 those which have aggregate flowers. 



AGGREGATION, in chemistry, de- 

 notes the adhesion of parts of the same, 

 kind. Thus, pieces of sulphur united by 

 fusion form an aggregate. 



AGIO, in commerce, a term chiefly 

 used in Holland and at Venice, where it 

 denotes the difference between the value 

 of bank stock and the current coin. Mo- 

 ney in bank is commonly worth more than 

 specie : thus, at Amsterdam, they give 

 103 or 104 florins for every 100 florins in 

 bank. At Venice, the agio is fixed at 

 20 per cent, See- EXC'EULNGE. Agio is 



