ALG 



AL& 



of the male is a periajithium ; the corol- 

 las five petals ; the nectary has five-cor- 

 nered scales ; the stamens are numerous 

 filaments; the anthers roundish. The fe- 

 male flowers are few, the calyx, corolla, 

 and nectarium, as in the male, but larger. 

 There are two seeds with a double bark. 

 Only one species, a tree in the islands of 

 the South Seas. 



ALEXANDRIAN Copy of the JVeiv 

 Testament, preserved in the British Mu- 

 seum, is referred to as an object of curi- 

 osity, as well as of considerable import- 

 ance to persons who study the scrip- 

 tures critically. It consists of four large 

 quarto, or rather folio volumes, contain- 

 ing the whole bible in Greek, including 

 the Old and New Testament, with the 

 Apochrypha, and some smaller pieces, but 

 not quite complete. It was placed in the 

 British Museum in 1758 ; and had been a 

 present to Charles I. from Cyrillus Luca- 

 ris, a native of Crete, and patriarch of 

 Constantinople, by sir Thomas Rowe, am- 

 bassador from England to the Grand 

 Seignior in the year 1628. Cyrillus 

 brought it with him from Alexandria, 

 where it was probably written. It is said 

 to have been written by Thecla, a noble 

 Egyptian lady, about thirteen hundred 

 years ago. In the New Testament there 

 is wanting the beginning, as far as Matt. 

 xxv. 6; likewise from John vi. 50, to viii. 

 52 ; and from 2 Cor. iv. 19, to xii. 7. It 

 has neither accents nor marks of aspira- 

 tion, it is written with capital, or, as they 

 are called, ?/TJ cm/letters and there are no 

 intervals between the words, but the sense 

 of a passage is sometimes terminated by 

 a point, and sometimes by a vacant space. 

 Dr. Woride published this valuable work 

 in 1786, with types cast for the purpose, 

 line for line, precisely like the original 

 MS. : the copy has been examined with 

 the greatest care, and it is found to be so 

 perfect a resemblance of the original, that 

 it may supply its place. The authentici- 

 ty, antiquity, &c. of this MS. is briefly, 

 but ably discussed in Rees's New Cyclo- 

 pedia, Vol. I, p. ii. 



ALG^E, in botany, an order or division 

 of the Cryptogamia class of plants. It is 

 one of the seven families or natural tribes 

 into which the vegetable kingdom is dis- 

 tributed, in the Philosophia Botanica of 

 Linnaeus ; the 57th order of his fragments 

 of a natural method. 



The plants belonging to this order are 

 described as having- their root, leaf, and 

 stern entire, or all one. The whole of 

 the sea-weeds, and various other aquatic 

 plants, are comprehended under tins di- 



vision. From their admitting of little dis- 

 tinction of root, leaf, or stem, and the 

 parts of their flowers, being equally inca- 

 pable of description, the genera are dis- 

 tinguished by the situation of what is sup- 

 posed to be flowers or seeds, or by 

 the resemblance which the whole plant 

 bears to some other substance. The 

 parts of fructification are either found in 

 saucers and tubercles, as in lichens ; in hol- 

 low bladders, as in the fuci ; or dispersed 

 through the whole substance of the plants, 

 as in the ulvx. The substance of the plants 

 has much variety ; it is flesh-like, or lea- 

 ther-like, rnembranaceous or fibrous, jel- 

 ly-like or horn-like, or it has the resem- 

 blance of a calcareous earthy matter. 



Lamarck distributes the algae into three 

 sections: the first comprehends all those 

 plants, whose fructification is not appa- 

 rent, or seems doubtful. These common- 

 ly live in water, or upon moist bodies, and 

 are membranous, gelatinous, or filamen- 

 tous. To this section he refers the byssi, 

 conferva, ulva, tremella, and varec. The 

 plants of the second section are distin- 

 guished by their apparent fructification, 

 though it be little known, and they are 

 formed of parts which have no particu- 

 lar and sensible opening or explosion, at 

 any determined period ; their substance 

 is ordinarily crustaceous or coriaceous. 

 They include the tassella, ceratosperma, 

 and lichen. The third section compre- 

 hends plants which have their fructifica- 

 tion very apparent, and distinguished by 

 constituent parts, which open at a certain 

 period of maturity, for the escape of the 

 fecundating dust or seeds. These plants 

 are more herbaceous, as to both their 

 substance and their colour, than those of 

 the other two sections, and are more near- 

 ly related to the mosses, from which they 

 do not essentially differ. Their flowers 

 are often contained in articulated and ve- 

 ry elastic filaments. To this section are 

 referred the riccia, blasia, anthoceros, 

 targiona, hepatica, and junger-manna. In 

 the Linnaean system the algae are divided 

 into two classes, viz. the terrestres and 

 aquaticae. The former include the an- 

 thoceros, blacia, riccia, lichen, and bys- 

 sus ; and the latter, are the ulva fucus, 

 and conferva. The fructification of the 

 algae, and particularly of those called 

 aquaticae, is denomicated by a judicious 

 botanist, the opprobrium botanicorum. 



ALGAROTH. See ANATOMT. 



ALGEBRA, a general method of re- 

 solving mathematical problems !w means 

 of equations ; or, it is a method of com- 

 putation by symbols, which have been 



