A C A 



ABUSCH^HHR. See Busheer. 

 A BUT A, in Botany, a Brafilian name, firft publilhed by 

 Barrere, adopted by Aublet, and recently by De CandoUe, 

 as well as Juflieu. It may remain for the prefent, till the 

 cliuradlers of the genus are known. Thefe are hitherto 

 involved in great uncertainty, the flowers not having been 

 obferved by any botanift. — Barr. Hift. Nat. de la France 

 Equinoxiale, I. Aubl. Guian. 6 1 8. Jufl". 286. De Cand. 

 Syft. V. I. 542. — Clafs and order, Dioecia Dodecanclria'? 

 (Polyandria Polygynia, ylubl.) Nat. Ord. Menifperma, 

 JufT. 



Efl". Ch. Male, unknown. 



Female, Fl. unknown. Berries two or three, ovate, fome- 

 what comprefied, dry, fingle-feeded. 



Lamarck and Willdenow have confidered this genus as 

 not diftinct from Menispermum, fee that article ; but Pro- 

 fefTor De CandoUe reckons the large, dry, ovate, not kidney- 

 fbaped, berries, fo termed, we prefume, becaufe of the brittle 

 (hell of their feed, as affording a fufficient charafter, even 

 without the flowers. He is m^re inclined to refer Abuta to 

 his own genus of Cocculus, feparated by him from Menifper- 

 . mum ; but their habits ax-e fomewhat different. Two 

 fppcies of Abuta are defined by this writer, but A. amara of 

 Aublet, Guian. 620. t. 251, is referred, on the authority of 

 Richard, to Artjloloch'ta. Thefe are large twining (hrubs, 

 with ovate haves, whofe pinnate ribs fpring nearly from one 

 point at the bafe. 



I. A. rufefcens. Reddifli Abuta, or Falfe Pareira-brava. 

 Aubl. Guian. 618. t. 250. De Cand. n. i. (A. fcan- 

 dens, amphffirao folio cordiformi, fubtus tomentofo ; Barr. 

 Fr. Equin. i . Menifpermum Abuta ; Lamarck Dift. 

 V. 4. 100. WiUd. Sp. PI. V. 4. 828.) — Leaves ovate, 

 acute, entire ; downy beneath. — Native of woods in Brafil, 

 Cayenne, and Guiana. Aublet found it in almoft every 

 foreft of the laft-mentioned country, that he examined, bear- 

 ing fruit in January. The Portuguefe confound this plant 

 with the true Cijfampelos Pareira, and confider its root of 

 equal efficacy in jaundice, diforders of the kidneys and 

 bladder, as well as internal abfceffes, and menftrual fuppref- 

 fioos. . The climbing_y?,?m, and downy branches, reach to the 

 tops of trees, and bear large, alternate, ftalked, coriaceous, 

 veiny, entire leaves, from four inches to a foot long ; fmooth 

 above ; covered beneath with prominent, reticulated, downy 

 veins, fpringing copioufly from five principal ribs, which 

 radiate from nearly the bafe of the leaf. The footjla/is arc 

 about half the length of the leaves, round, finely and denfely 

 downy. Berries elliptical, downy, an inch long, three upon 

 each receptacle, and forming large axillary branches. There 

 is faid to be a ' variety whofe woody parts, as well as the 

 pubefcence of the foliage, is reddifh. The Creoles make a 

 decoftion of the branches of the red and white varieties 

 indifferently, to cure obftructions of the liver, to which they 

 are very fubjeft. Aublet. 



2. A. candicans. Whitifh-leaved Abuta. De Cand. 

 n. 2. Richard MSS — " Leaves ovate, pointed, fomewhat 

 crenate, or minutely lobed ;. fmooth and whitifh beneath." — 

 Gathered in Cayenne by M. Richard, who unluckily did not 

 meet with the flowers. The branches are round and fraooth. 

 Foot/lalis four inches long, round and fmooth likewife. 

 Leaves five to feven inches long, three or four broad, nearly 

 entire, or flightly crifped, or toothed, in the margin ; even 

 and fmooth above ; pale or nearly white underneath, but, as 

 it feems, quite fmooth ; the ribs pinnate, the tv/o lower lateral 

 ones clofe together. The inhabitants of Cayenne call this 

 plant Llane amere. Bitter Vine. De CandoUe. 

 ABYSSINIAN Music. See Music. 

 ACACIA, in Botany, an ancient Greek name, derived 



A C A 



from axal^u,, to point or Jharpen, in reference to its thorny 

 habit. De Theis deduces all words of this etymology from 

 the Celtic, ac, a point. The axKicia of Diofcorides, book i. 

 chap. 133, was a fort of Egyptian thorn, "of a diffufe or 

 fpreading mode of growth, with a wliite flower, and a pod 

 refembling lupines." Its expreffed juice, dried in the (hade, 

 was an aftringent medicine much in ufe, and the fhrub yielded 

 alfo a clear white gum. This may very well have been a 

 plant of the prefent genus. Willdenow, who eftabliflied this 

 genus, firfl feparated it from the Linna:an Mimosa (fee that 

 article), which has become inconveniently numerous in 

 fpecies, and unqueftionably is capable of divifion by the cha- 

 radlers of the fruit, of which Willdenow has very well taken 

 advantage. He leaves in Mimofa fuch fpecies as have a 

 lomentum, or legume feparating into/ingle-feeded joints. Of 

 thefe he defines 32, having a five-toothed corolla, and only 

 eight ftamens ; and to many of them, being fenfitive, the 

 name Mimofa is properly appropriated. For his other genera 

 taken from hence, fee Desmanthus, Inga, and Schran- 

 KIA. We muft obferve however that the Acacia of Tourne- 



fort is not analogous to what is now before us Willd. Sp. 



PI. v. 4. 1049. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 5. 459. Purfli 305. 

 — Clafs and order, Polygamla Monoecia, or rather perhaps 

 Polyandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Lomentacet, Linn. 

 heguminofff , Juff. 



Eff. Ch. Calyx five-toothed. Corolla five-cleft. Sta- 

 mens indefinite, from four to an hundred. Pift;il one. 

 Legume of two valves. Some flowers male. 



Obf. The flowers, fometimes four-cleft, have, in fome 

 infl:ances, a corolla which feparates into four or five diftinft 

 petals. We have not had an opportunity of examining a 

 lufficient number of fpecies to give a full generic charaAer. 

 Willdenow reckons up 102, in feven feftions ; to which 

 Mr. Brown has made numerous additions from New 

 Holland, partly defcribed in A'tt. Hort. Keiu. above cited. 

 We (hall give fome examples of each feftion. 



Seft. I. Leaves fimple. Sixteen fpecies in Willdenow, 



to which ten are here added, nine of them from Hort. Ketxi 



Of this fingular tribe, firft difcovered by our Briti(h circum- 

 navigators, all the fpecies, as far as hitherto known, bear, in 

 a feeclling ftate, compound pinnate leaves, foon replaced by 

 leafy or fpinous fimple footftalks, which latter conftitute 

 the only fohage of the adult plant. There are no proper 

 thorns or prickles in thefe. Tht^'w Jlem is ftirubby, or arbo- 

 reous, as well as throughout the whole genus. We have 

 flightly adverted to this feftion at the end of our article 

 Mimosa. 



A. veriicillata. Whorl-leaved Acacia. Willd. n. i. 

 Ait. n. I. (Mimofa verticillata ; L'Herit. Sert. Angl. 30. 

 Curt. Mag. t. no. Venten. Malmaif. t. 63.) — Leaves 

 whorled, hnear-awlfliaped, rigid, fpinous-pointed. Spikes 

 fohtary, cyhndrical. — Gathered in Van Diemen's ifland, by 

 the late Mr. David Nelfon, who fent feeds to fir Jofefji 

 Banks in 1780. Hence this fingular flirub became known 

 in the Engliih green-houfes, where it flowers in the fpring, 

 and ripens feed. The firft two or three leaves of feedhng 

 plants are conjugate and pinnate, with elUptical obtufc entire 

 leafets : the reft are accurately whorled, fimple, pungent, 

 flatti(h thorns rather than leaves, fix or eight in each whorl, 

 about half an inch long, fomewhat unequal, fpreading 

 horizontally. Flowers in denfe, yellow, thick, obtufe 

 fpiies, which are an inch, more or lefs, in length, each on a 

 fimple, (lender, axillary ftalk, but there arc fometimes two or 

 more of thefe ftalks together. Legume linear, compreffcd, 

 corrugated, of one cell with feveral kidney-(haped/f</r. 



A. juniperina. .lunipcr-leavcd Acacia. Willd. n. 2. 



Ait. n. 2. (Mimofa juniperina J Venlen. Malmaif. t. 64. 



^ "M. uhcifoLa; 



