Et)C 2ucas'un> nf 23atann. 



[AD AN 



disk-shaped, the fruit berry-like, placed in 

 the cup-shaped tube of the calyx. [M. T. M.] 



ACTIXOMERIS. A genus of perennial 

 BT. American and Mexican herbs of the 

 composite family, closely allied to sun- 

 flowers (Helianthus), but differing in the 

 compressed and winged,— instead of 4-sided 

 and wingless,— achenes, which have a pap- 

 pus of two smooth bristles. There are 

 about eight known species, most of them 

 tall branching herbs, with alternate or op- 

 posite ovate or lance-shaped serrate leaves,, 

 which are smooth or rough, often tapering 

 to the base, and decurient on the stem, 

 thus giving it a winged appearance. The 

 rayed flower-heads, disposed usually in a 

 corymbose manner, are white or yellow, 

 sometimes li inches across, and not un- 

 like those of some species of Coreopsis. 

 The generic name alludes to the fewness 

 or irregularity of the rays. A number of 

 the species is cultivated in collections of 

 herbaceous plants. [A. A. B.] 



ACTINOPHLEBIA. A small group of 

 cvatheaceous ferns, now included in Hemi- 

 tonia. [T. MJ 



ACTINOSTROBUS pyramidalis. A small 

 shrub from Swan River, belonging to 

 the coniferous order. The branches are 

 three-cornered, and jointed like a Callitris, 

 from which genus it differs in having six 

 equal valves to its cones, and three wiaged 

 seeds. It inhabits salt marshes. 



ACTIXOTUS. A genus of Umbelliferce, 

 containing three species, natives of the 

 eastern districts of New Holland. It is 

 nearly related to Sanicula, but differs from 

 that and allied genera in having no petals. 

 It is characterised also by a one-ovuled 

 ovary, crowned by two styles; the fruit is 

 ovate, villous, and marked with fine strias. 

 The leaves are alternate, petiolate, and 

 deeply trisected. The umbels are simple 

 and many-flowered, the flowers on short 

 pedicels, and surrounded by a many-leaved 

 large involucre, which gives the genus 

 somewhat the appearance of belonging to 

 the Composite. [W. C] 



ACULEUS. A prickle ; a conical elevation 

 of the skin of a plant, becoming hard and 

 sharp-pointed: as in the rose. 



ACUMINATE. A term applied to leaves 

 or other flat bodies which narrow gradually 

 till they form a long termination : if the 

 narrowing takes place towards the base, it 

 is so stated, e.g. acuminate at the base ; if 

 towards the point, the term is used without 

 qualification. 



ACUYARI WOOD. The aromatic wood 

 of Idea altissima. 



ADA aurantiaca. Under this name has 

 been published a New Grenada epiphyte, 

 found in the neighbourhood of Pamplona, 

 at 8,500 feet above the sea. It has closely 

 packed bright orange-coloured flowers, 

 with much the same structure as Brassia, 

 except that the lip is firmly consolidated 

 with the base of the column. 



ADAM and EVE. Aplectrum hyemale. 



ADAM'S NEEDLE. The vulgar name for 

 Yucca. 



ADAMIA. A genus of the order Saxi- 

 fragaceo?, related to Hydrangea, found in 

 India, China, and other eastern countries. 

 It has a short five-toothed calyx, a five to 

 seven-petaled corolla, ten to twenty sta- 

 mens, .and a half -inferior ovary becoming a 

 berry, which is many-seeded. A. versicolor, 

 one of the most beautiful of the few-known 

 species, is a native of China, and forms a 

 dwarf smooth-branched shrub, furnished 

 with largish opposite leaves, resembling 

 those of Hydrangea japonica. The flowers 

 are collected into a pyramidal panicle, 

 nearly a foot in diameter ; they are each six 

 or seven-petaled, forming a pointed star, 

 and while in bud are whitish, but they 

 gradually change to purple and violet; they 

 have twenty stamens. The berries are blue. 

 Another species found in Nepal, A. cyanea, 

 also bears blue berries. [T. M.] 



ADANSONIA. This genus belongs to the 

 natural family Bombacea. The Adansonia 

 has, until lately, been considered the largest 

 tree in the world, but it must now give 

 place to the mammoth tree of California 

 ( Wellingtonia gigantea). Its height is from 

 40 to 70 feet, and not at all in proportion to 

 the size of its trunk, which sometimes at- 

 tains the great diameter of 30 feet. It soon 

 divides into branches of great size, which 

 bear a dense mass of deciduous leaves, 

 somewhat like those of the horse-chestnut. 

 The flowers are large, white, solitary, and 

 pendent on long stalks, and when ex- 

 panded are about 6 inches across. The fruit 

 is an oblong woody capsule, covered with a 

 short down, and from 8 inches to a foot 

 and a half long, in appearance somewhat 

 like a gourd ; internally, it is divided into 

 8 or 10 cells, each cell filled with a pulpy 

 substance in which the seeds are immersed. 



A.digitata, the Baobab, Ethiopian Sour 

 Gourd, or Monkey-bread, is a native of many 

 parts of Africa, It has been found in Sene- 

 gal and Abyssinia, as well as on the west 

 coast, extending to Angola, and from 

 thence across the country to Lake Ngami. 

 It is cultivated in many of the warm parts 

 of the world. It has been called ' the tree of 

 a thousand years,' and Humboldt speaks of 

 it as * the oldest organic monument of our 

 planet.' Adanson, whose name the genus 

 bears, and who travelled in Senegal in 1794, 

 has given an account of this tree. He made 

 a calculation to show that one of them, 30 

 feet in diameter, must be 5,150 years old ! ! 

 He saw two trees, from 5 to 6 feet in dia- 

 meter, on the bark of which were cut to a 

 considerable depth a number of European 

 names; two of these were dated, the one 

 in the 14th, the other in the 15th century. 

 In 1555, the same trees were seen by Thevet, 

 another French traveller, who mentions 

 them in the account of his voyage. Living- 

 stone says of the tree, ' I would back a true 

 Moicana (the name given to it in the 

 neighbourhood of Lake Ngami) against a 

 dozen floods, provided you do not boil it in 



