.•fl 



ADA 



Tiie Lipiia;an remai-k that "there is rarely a genus in which 

 one or other part of the frudification does not prove lefs 

 conftant, or uniform, than the reft," Phil. Bot. feB. 170; 

 a rule too much negleded by founders of new genera m aU 

 ages and countries, rtiould teach us caution m every inftance, 

 and in the prefent perhaps might juftify keepmg the Lmnaean 

 Alism A entire. See that article. 



ACTINOTUS, fo named by M. LabiUardiere, Nov. 

 Holl V. I. 67, from axl.vA--, radiated, alluding to the form 

 of the involucrum. See Eriocalia, which laft name is 

 retained by ProfefTor Sprengel, in his Prodr. Plant. Um- 

 bellif. 27, who gives the following effential charafter ot this 

 very curious genus. „ „ , ■■ , . 



Fruit ovate, villous, with five flender ribs, and crowned 

 by the calyx. Umbel capitate. Involucrum very long, 



The only two fpecies hitherto difcovered are defcribed in 

 their proper place. , ,, ,,r 



ACTON, fecond article, for 853 r. 885. Add, AUo, a 

 town of Vermont, in the county of Wmdham, containing 

 245 inhabitants. 



ACWORTH, 1. 3, in 1810, 1523 inhabitants. 

 ADAIR, in Geography, a county in the diftrift of Ken- 

 tucky, which, with the town of Columbia, has 601 1 

 inhabitants, including 956 flaves. 



ADAM, Robert. For Kirkaldy, in Fifefhire, r. Edin- 

 burgh ; and for Edinburgh r. that city. 

 ADAMAH. For NephtaU r. Naphtali. 

 ADAMS, in Geography, 1.2,^1763. At the clofe, add 



Alfo, a town of New Hamplhire, in the county of Coos, 



containing 244 inhabitants. — Alfo, a county of Ohio, con- 

 taining 9434 inhabitants — Alfo, a townfhip of Ohio, in the 

 county of Waftiington, having 620 inhabitants. — Alfo, a 

 county of Pennfylvania, containing 15,152 inhabitants, of 

 whom 7 1 are flaves. . , , , 



AD ANSON, Michael, in Biography, the article already 

 given requires fome correftion. This celebrated botanift be- 

 longed to a Scottifli family, attached to the fortunes of the 

 Pretender. He died of moUities ojjium, Auguft 3d, i8o6, 

 and not before, aged 79 years and 4 months. M. Cuvier, 

 in the Memoires de I'lnjlitut, v. 7, has publifhed an elaborate 

 eloge of Adanfon, in which great juftice is done to his ardour 

 and acutenefs in the purfuit of botany, and to his patience 

 and magnanimity under great fufferings and privations, inci- 

 dent to the political conv\ilfions of his country. The writer 

 of this knew him at Paris in 1786. He was evidently a man 

 of an active and penetrating mind, but devoted to his own 

 imaginations and hypothefes, always attacking, as might be 

 expeAed, the botanical fyftem of Linnaeus, but betraying a 

 weaknefs unworthy of his own talents, in contemptuoully 

 reprobating the whole principles and performances of the 

 illuftrious Swede. Yet we are pofTefled of two letters from 

 Adanfon to Linnaeus, both amicable and complimentary in 

 the higheft degree. In the firil, dated June 28, 1754, the 

 writer offers to communicate his difcoveries and remarks 

 made at Senegal, fpeaks of Gum Bdellium as the Thus, or 

 Frankincenfe, of Europeans, ufed for fumigation in churches, 

 and exhorts Linnxus to continue to illuftrate botanical 

 fcience. The fecond, dated Oftober 2, 1758, acknow- 

 ledges the receipt of a moft welcome letter from Linnaeus ; 

 laments the recent death of Anthony de Juffieu, and the 

 illnefs of Bernard de Juffieu, which obliged Adanfon to 

 undertake the department of herborizing with the ftudents. 

 He fubjoins an account of the African tree Baobab, which 

 Bernard de Juffieu had named Adanjonia, and gives its 

 uaturd generic charafter at length, profefTedly in the Lin- 

 nasan manner, with feveral articles of informatiofl which 



A D E 



Linnaeus afterwards introduced into his account of Adan- 

 fonia. This letter moreover contains fome matters relatiiig 

 to Zoology ; mentions the great want of accuracy in the 

 charafters of almoft all the exotic genera of plants, defcribed 

 by travellers, which the writer had examined at Senegal, and 

 concludes with mod refpeftfully thanking Linnaeus for his 

 promife to make Adanfon a member of the Upfal Academy 

 of Sciences. This promife appears never to have been ful- 

 filled. It might well be difpenfed with when Adanfon, ii* 

 the following year, read before the Academic da Sciences, at 

 Paris, that hiilory of botany, which now makes a part of the 

 preface of his work, entitled Families des Plantes, publifhed 

 in 1763. In this the fyftem of Tournefort is exalted above 

 the natural as well as artificial methods of Linnaeus, and the 

 perfon whofe correfpondence he had been courting, and to 

 whofe " favour and friendfhip" he had fo lately recom- 

 mended himfelf, is depreciated in the moil contemptuous 

 manner, in almoft every thing he had done for the fcience of 

 botany. This has been attributed to the correfpondence of 

 Adanfon being flighted by Linnaeus ; but there was hardly 

 time for fuch a confequence. He rather appears to have 

 found it expedient and popular to attack the fame of the 

 great naturaliil, to whofe merit the French were then 

 becoming fenfible, and who threatened to eclipfe the honours 

 fo long enjoyed by Tournefort. Notwithftanding Tourne- 

 fort's merits, Adanfon tells us, p. 154, that " he has reafon 

 to think his own Families will be adopted, as containing the 

 fum of all the knowledge acquired in the fcience of botany." 

 An author feldom errs more than when he prophefies the 

 fuccefs of his own works. Had Adanfon foretold that his 

 performances would never be refuted, he had been right, for 

 they have flept in almoft total negleft. We have given a 

 fufficient account of his method and nomenclature, under the 

 head of Natural Orders. We are aware that it is ftill 

 popular at Paris to commend him, nor would we deprive him 

 of any praife which he can enjoy, without injuftice to his pre- 

 deceffors, or without his authority leading to fcientific error, 

 and hiftorical miftake. 



ADDISON, Joseph, 1. 2, r. Ambrofbury for Abrof- 

 bury. 



Addison, County , 1. 5, contained, in 18 10, 19,998 inhabi- 

 tants, difperfed in 24 townfhips. 



Addison, 1. 4, for 401 r. 1 100. Add — Alfo, a town of 

 Wafhington county, in the diftrift of Maine, containing 399 

 inhabitants. — Alfo, a townfhip of Pennfylvania, in the county 

 of Somerfet, having 678 inhabitants. 



ADENANTHOS, in Botany, fo named by LabiUardiere, 

 from aJr,», a gland, and avSo;, a Jloiver, on account of the 

 glands, in the foi-m of fcales, attached to the permanent bafe 

 of the corolla. — Labill. Nov. Holl. v. 1.28. Brown Tr. 

 of Linn. Soc. v. 10. 151. Prodr. Nov. Holl. v. I. 367. — 

 Clais and order, Tetrandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Protea- 

 ces^ Juff. Brown. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Involucrum fingle-flowered, of from four 

 to eight fhort, imbricated leaves. Cor. of one petal, inferior, 

 tubular, cut round near the bafe, and from above that part 

 deciduous ; its hmb in four deep, lanceolate, flat fegments, 

 turned to one fide. Nedtary four glands, united with the per- 

 manent bafe of the corolla at its infide. Stam. Filaments 

 four, fhort, inferted into the difk of each fegment of the 

 corolla ; anthers oblong, erect. Pijl. Germen fuperior, 

 roundifh ; ftyle thread-fhaped, longer than the corolla ; 

 ftigma vertical, awl-fhaped, rather thicker than the flyle. 

 Peric. Nut tumid, of one cell, with a fingley^i/. 



Eft". Ch. Involucrum imbricated, fingle-flowered. Corolla 



four-cleft, fpUtting circularly near the bafe. Neftary of 



four glands, attached to the bottom of the corolla. Style 



1 1 longer 



