ALP 



ALP 



ive of most parts of Europe, and is found 

 with us very common in pastures and 

 meadows. It is perennial, and flowers in 

 May. This is the best grass to be sown 

 in low meadow grounds, or in boggy 

 places which have been drained. It is 

 grateful to cattle, and possesses the three 

 rreat requisites of quantity, quality, and 

 earliness, in a degree superior to any 

 other, and is therefore highly deserving 

 of cultivation in lands that are proper for 

 It. The seed may be easily collected, as 

 it does not quit the chaff, and the spikes 

 are very prolific ; but the larva; of a spe- 

 cies of tnuscae, which are themselves the 

 prey of the cimex campestris, devour the 

 i-jeedsso much, that in many spikes scarce- 

 ly one is found perfect. "A. agrestis is a 

 very troublesome weed in cultivated 

 ground, and among wheat it is execrated 

 by farmers under the name of blackbent : 

 it is also common by way sides, as well as 

 in corn fields, and in pastures in the Isle 

 of Wight. It has acquired the name of 

 mouse-tail grass in English, from the 

 great length and slenderness of the spike, 

 which resembles the tail of a mouse. It 

 is annual, and flowers in July, continues 

 flowering till autumn, and comes iaito 

 bloom very soon after being sown. 



ALPHABET, in matters of literature, 

 the natural or accustomed series of the 

 several letters of a language. 



As alphabets were not contrived with 

 design, or according* to the just rules of 

 analogy and reason, but have been suc- 

 cessively framed and altered, as occasion 

 required, it is not surprising that many 

 grievous complaints have been heard of 

 iheir deficiencies, and divers attempts 

 made to establish new and more adequate 

 0nes in their place. 



All the alphabets extant are charged by 

 Bishop Wilkins with great irregularities, 

 with respect both to order, number, pow- 

 er, figure, &c. 



As to the order, it appears (says he) 

 nartificial, precarious, and confused, as 

 the vowels and consonants are not redu- 

 ced into classes, with such order of pre- 

 cedence and subsequence as their natures 

 will bear. Of this imperfection, the 

 Greek alphabet, which is one of the least 

 defective, is far from being free: for in- 

 stance, the Greeks should have separated 

 the consonants from the vowels ; after 

 the vowels they should have placed the 

 diphthongs, and then the consonants; 

 whereas, 'in fact, the order is so perverted 

 that we find the ^<*ov,the fifteenth letter 

 in order of th.e alphabet, and the .*? 



or long' o, the twenty -fourth and last, the 

 e the fifth, and the the seventh. 



\Vith respect to the number, they are 

 both redundant and deficient ; redundant, 

 by allotting the same sound to several 

 letters, as in the Latin c and k,f and ph ; 

 or by reckoning double letters among the 

 simple elements of speech, as in the 

 Greek | and ^ the Latin q or cu, * or ex, 

 and the j consonant ; deficient in many 

 respects, particularly with regard to vow- 

 els, of which seven or eight kinds are 

 commonly used, though the Latin alpha- 

 bet takes notice only of five. Add to this, 

 that the difference among them, with re- 

 gard to long and short, is not sufficiently 

 provided against. 



The powers, again, are not more ex- 

 empt from confusion ; the vowels, for in- 

 stance, are generally acknowledged to 

 have each of them several different 

 sounds ; and among the consonants we 

 need only bring, as evidence of their dif- 

 ferent pronunciation, the letter c in the 

 word circa, and g in the word negligence. 

 Hence it happens, that some words are 

 differently "written, though pronounced 

 in the same manner, as cessio and sessio ; 

 and others are different in pronunciation, 

 which are the same in writing, as^'re, 

 dare, and. five, vincnhtm. 



Finally, the figures are but ill-concert- 

 ed, there being nothing in the characters 

 of the vowels answerable to the different 

 manner of pronunciation ; nor in the con- 

 sononts analagous to their agreements or 

 disagreements. 



Alphabets of different nations vary in 

 the number of their constituent letters. 

 The English alphabet contains twenty- 

 four letters, to which if.; andt> consonants 

 are added, the number will be twenty-six; 

 the French twenty-three ; the Hebrew, 

 Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan, twenty- 

 two each ; the Arabic, twenty-eight; the 

 Persian, thirty-one ; the Turkish, thirty- 

 three ; the Georgian, thirty-six; the Cop- 

 tic, thirty-two ; the Muscovite, forty- 

 three ; the Greek, twenty -four ; the La- 

 tin, twenty-two; the Sclavonic, twenty- 

 seven ; the Dutch, twenty-six ; the Span- 

 ish, twenty-seven ; the Italian, twenty ; 

 the Ethiopic, as well as Tartarian, two- 

 hundred and two ; the Indians of Bengal, 

 twenty-one ; the Baramos, nineteen ; the 

 Chinese, properly speaking, have no al- 

 phabet, except we call their whole lan- 

 guage their alphabet; their letters are 

 words, or rather hieroglyphics, and 

 amount to about 80,000. 

 If alphabets had been constructed by 



