13 



Cijc Crcasuni of 2S0tauj). 



[acko 



It is also found in the cooler parts of 

 Europe, of India, and of North America. 

 From the lower part of the thick jointed 

 stem or rhizome, the plant sends down 

 numerous roots, while from the upper sur- 

 face it pushes upwards a number of lance- 

 shaped leaves from two to three feet in 

 length, sheathing at the base, also a long 

 leaf-like stalk, from one edge of which, a 

 foot or more above the rootstock, issues a 

 spike of densely packed greenish flowers, 

 each provided with a perianth of six pieces, 

 enclosing six stamens and a three-celled 

 ovary with a sessile stigma. All parts of 

 the plant, but especially the rhizome, have 

 a strong, aromatic, and slightly acrid taste ; 

 hence it has been used as a stimulant and 

 mild tonic in medical practice, especially in 

 some kinds of indigestion, and is said to 

 be useful in ague. The rhizome is also 

 used by confectioners as a candy, and by 

 perfumers in the preparation of aromatic 

 vinegar and other perfumed articles. A. 

 gramineus is a much smaller plant, some- 

 times cultivated in gardens, especially the 

 form with variegated leaves. [M.T.M.] 



The Aconts Calamus imparts at once an 

 aromatic taste, and an agreeable bouquet 

 odour, to liquids in which it is infused. 

 Professor Johnston states, in his Chemistry 

 of Common Life, that it is used by the recti- 

 fiers to improve the flavour of .gin, and is 

 largely employed to give a peculiar taste 

 and fragrance to certain varieties of beer. 

 It abounds near the rivers of Norfolk, and, 

 according to the same authority, the Lon- 

 don market used to be principally supplied 

 from this locality; as much as 401. having 

 been sometimes obtained for the year's 

 crop of a single acre of riverside land, 

 on which it naturally grows. It is still 

 used, as "rushes," to strew the floor of 

 Norwich Cathedral on certain festivals. 

 [T. M.] 



ACOTTLEDONS. A name often applied 

 to Cryptogams, or flowerless plants, in 

 consequence of their reproductive organs 

 or spores, when germinating, having no 

 seed-leaves or cotyledons. There is, how- 

 ever, no rule without an exception, and 

 some lycopods present when young some- 

 thing very like cotyledons. Though Crypto- 

 gams have no trne cotyledons, their spores 

 produce, mostly by cell-division, a mass of 

 threads, a leafy expansion, or a solid body, 

 to which the name of false cotyledons (pseu- 

 do-cotyledons)hasbeengiven,andsuch pro- j 

 ductions, as the false cotyledons of mosses 

 for example, have often been considered as 

 distinct plants, belonging to a distinct 

 natural order from the parent plant. Under 

 this name are included all those plants 

 called by Linnseus Cryptogamia, because he 

 was unable to discover their organs of fer- 

 tilisation, if they had any. They comprehend 

 Sea-weeds, Fungi, Lichens, Mosses, 

 Ferns, and their allies : which see. It is 

 now known that all are multiplied hy a 

 sexual apparatus in structure wholly differ- 

 ent from that of pha?nogamous plants, but 

 in function the same. One very great pe- 

 culiarity is that in the majority of the orders 



a true locomotive action is observable in 

 the matter emitted by the male organs ; 

 and that in the higher orders, that is to 

 say in Ferns, Lycopods, and Horsetails, the 

 plant, properly so calle,d, does not proceed 

 directly from the spore or seed, but from a 

 rudimentary intermediate organ called pro- 

 thallium, on which the organs of fertilisa- 

 tion are formed, these organs not pro- 

 ducing a spore or seed, but the very plant 

 itself. 



ACOTTLEDONOUS. Having no cotyle- 

 dons, as in Cuscuta. But, in systematical 

 botany, applied to what are now called 

 spores, which were formerly thought to be 

 embryos without cotyledons. 



ACOUCHI RESIN. The inspissated juice 

 of Idea heterophylla. 



ACRADENIA. A plant found wild in the 

 neighbourhood of Macquarrie Harbour, 

 Tasmania, has been included in a genus of 

 rutaceous plants of the above name. It 

 belongs to the tribe Boronim, and its dis- 

 tinguishing characters are the following :— 

 parts of the flower in fives ; stamens free, 

 not united together, perfectly smooth ; 

 anthers smooth, not provided with any 

 appendage. The ovaries adhere closely to- 

 gether, and are everywhere clothed with a 

 dense woolly covering, except that each 

 bears at its summit a small gland, whence 

 the name of the genus. "When the fruit is 

 ripe the inner shell remains firmly attached 

 to the outer shell, instead of separating from 

 it in- two elastic valves, as in the neigh- 

 bouring genera. A. Frankliniw, a species 

 named after Lady Franklin, is a shrub now 

 in cultivation at Kew, with opposite ternate 

 leaves, which are thick, very rough and 

 harsh on the upper surface, smooth on the 

 under surface, and fragrant. [M. T. M.] 



ACR^EA. A small genus of terrestrial 

 orchids with fleshy fasciculate roots, and 

 close racemes of yellowish, downy flowers. 

 In general aspect the species resemble the 

 European Spiranthes. The three or four 

 that are described come from Central 

 America. 



ACRAMPHIBRYA. Plants that grow 

 both- at the point and along the sides, as 

 endogens and exogens. 



ACRIOPSIS. In Burmah, Borneo, and 

 the Malay Archipelago, are found several 

 epiphytal orchids with small reddish pani- 

 culate flowers, having their lip united firmly 

 to the front of the column, from which it 

 projects at right angles, in addition to 

 which the column has two glandular arms, 

 and is extended behind into a hood cover- 

 ing the anther. They belong to the van- 

 deous sub-class, and are nearly related to 

 the South American genus Aspasia. Three 

 or four species are known, of which two, 

 A. densiflora and picta, have been culti- 

 vated. Beyond the very curious structure 

 of the parts of fructification, they have 

 little to recommend them to notice. 



ACROBRTA. A term used hy Endlicher; 

 synonymous with Acrogens. [M. J. BJ 



