ALU 



vrs. A. afy/an.V/T, Ceylffi A. or aloe, with fomf of the leaves 

 fi/bulate and compn-flld j and A. .ji/'jicfn./'i) GuintraA. or 

 a!oc, w ith all the Icavts lanccclatc, of wiiich tht katu-'iiai^el 

 ot" Rliecd 13 coiiriikad Ijy La Marck as a variety . Thi. fiift 

 of thcfc is cornnnoii ia gnrdenr., wliere exotic plants arc prc- 

 fc!VLd ; tht I'.xond was cult ivatod hcic in 161,10 ; its flowers, 

 wliicU al'ccud its wUoli- kngth, are of aViear white-, but fcl- 

 dom continue in beauty more tl'.aii two or three days ; and it 

 never prodiico^ feeds in England. 7. tX.fra^riws, fweet- 

 fe-tntcd A, eaiilcfcent, le".ves lanceolate, loofc 5 feunj in 

 Africa, and cultivated in 1768 by Mr. Miller. 8. A. cc- 

 cilndfitjis, caulefrcnt, leaves lanceolate-linear, reflex, flowers 

 panidcd; cultivated in the gardens of Coclunehina, where it 

 is a native ; Uie jiiiee of the leaves are ufed to dye green, and 

 the flowers aie eaten. The eighth Ipccits of Gmelin is A. 

 jnfanica, ftemlcfs, with leaves peliolatcd, ovate-lanceolated, 

 'fevcn-ncrved, and fpiked flowers. The ninth fpecies is A. 

 ourfa. The fecond, third, fourth, and fifth fpecies are re- 

 ferred by WiUlenow to the genus ^''clt.ieiri:a. 



Culture. T!ie firft fpecies may be preferred through the 

 winter under a hot-bed frame, 'i'he roots of the iceond fort 

 inuft be planted in pots filled inth light earth, and Iheltered 

 in winter in a dry airy glafs-cafe. In May they may be 

 placed abroad in a flitltered fitv.ation, and often refrelhed 

 with water in warm weather. I'he fourth fort is fufficiently 

 hardy ta live abroad in mild winters, when planted in a 

 warm border and dr)- foil. It is propagated by feeds, fown 

 in pots, and (heltered under a hot-iicd frame ; the plants, 

 when they come tip in fpring, flioiild be gradually expofed 

 to the open air ; and when they are large enough, fome may 

 be planted in pots, and others in a w.-irm border, where they 

 should be (heltered during the enfuing winter. The Ceylon, 

 Guinea, and fwect-fcented fpecies are too tender to live 

 through the winter in England, unlefs they are placed in a 

 warm ftovc ; and they will not produce their flowers, if the 

 plants are not plunged into a tan-bed. The creeping roots 

 of the Ceylon and Guinea forts fend up many heads, which 

 fhould be cut off in June, and, after having been laid in the 

 ftovc for a fortnight, that the wounded part may heal, they 

 fiiould be planted in fmall pots of light fandy earth, and 

 plunged into a moderate hot-bed of tanner's bark, giving 

 them but littli: water till they have put out good roots ; 

 they fhould then be treated like other tender fuccu- 

 lent plants, and be never fet abroad in fummer. The feventh 

 fpecies is eafily propagated from the fide heads, which it puts 

 out after flowering. 



ALETUM, Guich-Alet, in j4ricient Geography, a 

 town of the Gauls, mentioned in the Notitia Imperii, and 

 placed by M. d'Anville upon the fea-coail, north-weft of the 

 teiTitory of the Rhcdonnes. It was formerly a bilhop's fee, 

 which, in the 1 2th century, was transferred to St. Malo, 

 about a mile from it. 



ALEVAIA, in Geography, a river of Siberia, which 

 runs into the Penzinflvoi lea. N. lat. 62°. E. long. 157° 14'. 

 ALEURITES, AX'vftln.:, furinmeous, of aXa'po»,;nffl/, parts 

 of the tree having ameal fcattered over them, in i?o/i7njr,a genus 

 of the monoec'ia monac!elph':a clafs and order, of the aatural order 

 of tricoccit, and euphorbits of JufTieu ; the charafters of which 

 are, that the flowers are male and female : the calyx of the 

 male is a periauthium, three-cleft, very fhort, the clefts ovate 

 and obtufe ; the corolla has five petals, oblong, fpreading, 

 obtufe, much longer than tlie calyx ; tlie nedary has five 

 fcalts fomewhat cornered, very fliort, at the bafes of the pe- 

 tals ; the ftamens are numerous filaments, connate into a 

 conic columnar receptacle, the anthers roundifli. The female 

 flowers are few, in the fame corymb ; the calyx, corolla, and 

 ntftarium as in the male, but larger ; the piftillum has a 

 5 



ALE 



prrm c«nic fuperior, the ilyle none, the ftigmas two, very 

 (hovt ; the periearpium a large, globofe, tvs-o-feeded berry ; 

 tlic feeds arc two, globofe, coated with a double bark. There 

 i.i one l^iecies, -uk. A. trilol/a, which is a tree of the illaudi; of 

 the South Sea. 



AI.EURCTMANCY, Aleuromantia, derived from 

 «>.f! pv, Mti!li and (xKvMix, i.'ivinrJ'wn, in j^iitiquity, is the fame 

 with what was otherwife called V\lphitomaiitia and Critho- 

 iirautia, and means an ancient kind of divination by means of 

 meal or flour. 



ALEURSKA, in Geography, Vitovm of Siberia, at the con- 

 flux of the Agila and Aler, 64 miles north-eail of Nertcliinllc. 

 ALEUT1:VN, or Aleutsky Islands, a group or 

 chain of iflands, on the north-eaft of Kamtlchatka, and 

 near the continent of America, belonging to Afiatic Ruf- 

 fia. Thefe iflands were partly difcovered by Behrmg 

 ill 1 741, and the reft at feveral periods fuice his time. 

 I'he moil eonfiderable of them amount to 40 in num- 

 ber, and they may be juftly conildered as a branch of 

 the Kamtlkadale mountains continued in the fea. Some 

 have erroneoully included BEHRiNG's-;/7(znc/ and the Cop- 

 r tR-iJlntul \\\ this group ; but they are ufually diftinguilhed 

 from them. South-eaft of the Copper-ifland, within 150 or 

 200 verfts between the 54th and 55th degrees of north lati.. 

 tudc, he three fmall iflands, known by the names of At- 

 TAK, Shemya, and Semitshi; and thtfe, with a few 

 others, were denominated by the Ruffians Alentilcie Oftro. 

 va, becaufe a bold rock, in the language of thefe parts, is- 

 Ci-Jled aleiit. In the fequel this name was extended to the 

 whole chain ; though a part of it, namely, as far as the 

 iiland Yamblak, is named the Andreanofskoi, andthereil, 

 lying further towards America, the Yox-'Jlands. The Ruf- 

 fian charts divide the long Archipelago, known under the 

 name of the Aleutian and Fox-illands, into feveral Archipela- 

 goes under different names. On thefe Aleutian iflands, and on. 

 upw.irds of 300 leagues of coaft, which extend beyond the 

 polar circle, the indefatigable Ruflianshave formed thofe nu- 

 nierous fettlements or fjiftories that iupport the fur-trade, 

 from which the empire of Ruffia derives fuch great advan- 

 tages in its commercial concerns, and exchanges with the em- j| 

 pire of China. This Archipelago, known, in the moft ex- 

 tenlive fenfe, by the collective name of the Aleutian-iflands, 

 forms with the noilh-weft coaft of America and the north- 

 eaft coaft of Afia a large bafin of about 1,200 leagues in 

 circuit, which communicates towards the fouth with the 

 great Boreal ocean, by as many ftraits as the iflands form 

 channels between them ; and towards the north, under the 

 66th parallel, with the Arftic Frozen Ocean, by Behring'S. 

 ftrait alone. The furvey of thefe iflands, more anciently dif- 

 covered by the Ruffians, and of the adjacent parti of the two 

 continents, was made by Captain Cook in his third voyage in 

 1778. If the RuflTians, then, can defervedly claim the prio- 

 rity of the difcovery, no one can withhold from the adven- 

 turous and perfevering Captain Cook the glory and the merit 

 of having fixed the dillance of the two continents, and their 

 refpeftive extent, to the eaft for Afia, and to the weft for 

 North America ; and, by his refeaiches and obfervations, of 

 having opened a career to the navigators of the European 

 nations, who fhould be defirous of availing themfelves of the 

 benefits which the difcovery of thefe coafts prefents to the 

 fpeculations and enterprifes of commerce. We fhall here add, 

 that in afcending towards the north-weft. Cook made Beh- 

 ring's Mount St. Elias towards the latitude of 60° 30'. 

 He anchored in alarge bay, which he named Prince Wil- 

 liam's found ; and thence fteering again to the fouth-wcft, 

 he difcovered and afcended a river, on which, after his death, 

 the gratitude of his nation impofed the name of Cook's 



River. 



