A M E 



meuts form a tube or (heath. Germen fimple ; ftyle or 

 lligma fimple, or double, or triple. Capfuh of one cell, 

 with an unconnected receptacle, and either burfting at the 

 fummit, or fplitting all round, containing one or many feeds. 

 The corculum is curved round a farinaceous mafs. Flowers 

 capitate or fpiked. Leaves generally undivided and pointed ; 

 ' in fome alternate ; in others oppofite ; in a few inftances 

 accompanied hyjipulas. Stem for the moft part herba- 

 ceous. Stamens and pijlils fometimes in feparate flowers. 



Sedt. I . Leaves alternat', iLiithoutJlipulas. 



Under this feftion Juffieu enumerates /Itnaranthus and 

 Celofia of Linnzus; with y^erua of Forllcall, a genus 

 formed of alternate-leaved fpecies of lUecelrum ; and Digera 

 of the fame author, to which Achyranthes muricaia of Lin- 

 naeus is fuppofed to belong. 



Seft. 2. Leaves oppoftte, ivlthoutjitpnlas. 



Confifts of Ircfine, Achyranthes, Gomphrena, and lUecebrum. 



Seft. 3. Leaves oppnjite, ivithjlipiilas. 



Under this feflion are ranged Paronychia of Tournefort, 

 feparatcd from the Linnsean llhcehrum ; and Hermaria of all 

 authors. 



This order, as Juffieu candidly obferves, is very nearly 

 related to that of the CaryophylkiZ, which, on account of its 

 having petals, he is obliged to place in a far diftant part of 

 his fyftem. He remarks, on this fubjeft, that the abfence or 

 prefence of a corolla does not always afford an eflential, or 

 eminently natural, diftindion ; which is very true, but there 

 is no charafter of natural orders without fome exception, and 

 hence I^innaeus was led to deny the poffibility of defining 

 really natural orders by words, or any effential charafters. 



Juffieu, in the Annales du Mufeum, v. 2. 131, has pub- 

 iifhed fome additions to the prefent order, which, according 

 to a recent alteration, and perhaps an improvement, in the 

 nomenclature of natural orders, he there terins Amaraiithace^. 

 A tranflation of his paper may be feen in Sims and Konig's 

 Ann. of Bot. v. 2. 274. The author here makes but two 

 feftions of the order in queftion, one having naked, the ofiber 

 ftipulated, leaves. To the firft he adds a new genus by the 

 barbarous name of Pupalia, founded on the Linnxan Achy- 

 ranthes lappacea, called in Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus, 

 v. 7. t. 43, Pupal-VaUi. Of this we are furprifed to find 

 Juffieu had never feen the fruit, and we cannot but obferve 

 that its generic charafters are rather weak, being chiefly 

 taken from the inflorefcence and brafteas. 



To the feftion with ftipulated leaves, this eminent botanift 

 adds three new genera, i. Anych'ta of Michaux, to which 

 belongs Quer'ta canadenjis of Linnaeus. 2. Lithophila 

 of Swartz. 3. PoLVCHROA of Loureiro. The two lail 

 are already defcribed in their proper places. See alfo 



QUERIA. 



Juffieu proceeds to remark, that Cyathula of Loureiro, a 

 plant of this order, is really an Achyranthes with a many- 

 cleft ftigma ; but that Polia of the fame author, (fee that 

 article and HagjEA,) fuppofed to belong to the Amaranthi, 

 is really one of the CaryophylUt. 



Vol. II. 



AMBOISE, Ambasia, or Ambacla, in Geography, a 

 town of France, in the department of the Indre and Loire, 

 and chief place of a canton in the diftrift of Tours, fituate 

 at the conflux of the Loire and AmafTe. The place con- 

 tains 5100, and the canton 14,415 inhabitants ; the territory 

 comprehends 322^ kiliometres, and 16 communes. 



AMDOA, in Geography. See Thibet. 



AMEDNAGUR,1. i,Soubah, now called Dowlatabad. 

 Add — This city has generally been placed 50 miles to the 

 S.E. of its true pofition. 



' A M E 



AMELIA, 1. 5, for including r. exclufive of; 1. 6, ,-. 

 10,594 and 7186. Add — Nottaway contains 9278 inhabit- 

 ants, of whom 6368 are flaves. 



AMENTACEjE, in Botany, of which term mention has 

 already been made in its place, as defignating a Linna^an 

 natural order, is alfo the appellation of the 99th order in 

 Juffieu's fyftem, the fourth of his fifteenth clafs ; correfpond- 

 ing for the moft part, though not entirely, with that of 

 Lmnicus, and fo called from Amentum, a Catkin, in allufion 

 to the nature of its fruftification. See Euphorbi.s for the 

 charafters of this fifteenth clafs of Juffieu, and remarks 

 thereon. He thus defines his Amentacee. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious, (rarely with ftamens and 

 piftils in the fame,) all deftitute of petals. Tlu? male, or 

 barren, flowers difpofed in a catkin, confifting either of 

 fcales, into which the ftamens are inferted, or each of thofe 

 fcales has a calyx attached to it, which bears the Jlamens. 

 The latter are either definite, or indefinite, with diftintt fila- 

 ments. (We would here obferve that two or three fpecies 

 of Salix are remarkable for their combined, or monadelphous, 

 filaments. ) — The female, or fertile, flowers are either amenta- 

 ceous, or fafciculated, or folitary ; fometimes furniflied with 

 a fingle-leaved calyx, fometimes with only a fcale. The 

 germen is fuperior, either fimple, or in fome rare inftances 

 more thaji one, of a certain determinate number. Style one 

 or more. Stigmas generally feveral. Seeds either naked, or 

 enclofed in fuperior capfules, which are either of a coriaceous 

 or bony texture, as many in number as the germens, and for 

 the moft part of a fingle cell. Corculum deftitute of albu- 

 men, with a ftraight radicle. Stem arboreous, or ftirubby, 

 rarely of humble growth. Leaves alternate, accompanied by 

 Jl'tpulas, moftly fimple. 



Seft. I. Flowers with Jlamens and pljl'ils. 



Here Juffieu ranges Fothergilla, Ulmus, and Celtis ; of 

 which the two latter are placed by Linnseus among his 

 Scabrida. Hamamelis, which the laft -named author has, in 

 manufcript, referred to his Amentacetc, and which is furely 

 next akin to Fothergilla, is reckoned by Juffieu among his 

 Berberides, or at leaft among feveral genera fuppofed related 

 to that rather mifcellaneous order. 



Seft. 2. Floiuers dioecious. 



This contains Salix, Populus, and Myrica. 



Seft. 3. Floivers monoecious. 



A larger affemblage of genera, if not of fpecies, confift- 

 ing of Betula, Carpinus, Fagus, Quercus, Corylus, Liqui- 

 dambar, (under which laft the genus now called Comptonia, 

 fee that article, is hinted at,) and Platanus. There is no 

 appendix of doubtful genera, as in moft other orders of 

 Juffieu, but a fufpicion is expieffed refpefting Liquidambar 

 and Platanus. 



Tlie Amentace<e of Linnxus are, Salix, Populus, Platanus, 

 Sloanea, with a juft indication of doubt, Fagus, Juglans, 

 Quercus, Corylus, Carpinus, Betula, Myrica, Piftacia, and 

 Cynomorium. Brabcjum is, in the Linnasan manufcript, in- 

 ferted immediately before Fagus ; Hamamelis before Betula, 

 after which Brabcjum is again written ; an evident indication 

 of great uncertainty in the mind of the writer, who knew 

 this genus but imperfeftly, and who had conceived no idea 

 at all of the order Proteacea, to which it clearly belongs, 

 and which makes fo ftriking a figure in the works of 

 Juffieu ; and efpecially of our countryman Mr. Brown. 

 See Prodr. Nov. HoU. v. i. 363, and Tr. of Linn. Soc. 

 v. 10. 



AMERCOTE, in Geography, a fortified place, which 

 formerly belonged to the country of Scind, but is now in 

 the poffeffion of the rajah of Joudpore. Situated S.E. of 

 Hydrabad, and about 25 miles from the eaftcrn branch of 

 the Indus. 



AMERICA, 



