agar] 



dDfje Eveagurg at 330tanj). 



28 



under curious circumstances. In Naples, I 

 for instance, the grounds of coffee are | 

 placed in a heap in some subterranean 

 place of moderate temperature, and an 

 esculent species almost invariably makes 

 its appearance. It is not, however, to be 

 supposed that species which appear under 

 such exceptional cases are creatures of 

 spontaneous growth. They are generally 

 mere altered forms of species which have 

 usually a different habitat. 



The word agaric, amongst the old herbal- 

 ists, had a wider signification than it has 

 now, and was applied to many of the corky 

 funguses. [M. J. B.] 



AGARTTM. A genus of olive-seeded A Jgce, 

 distinguished from Laminaria principally 

 by the frond being always perforated with 

 roundish holes. These plants are peculiar 

 to the northern parts of the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans,on the American and Asiatic 

 shores. [M. J. B.] 



AGASTACHYS. A Tasmanian genus of 

 Proteacecv, containing only a single species, 

 A. odorata, which has yellow apetalous 

 flowers of four sepals and four stamens, 

 one of which is attached by a short fila- 

 ment to the middle of each sepal; the 

 style is filiform, rather shorter than the 

 stamens, and bearing a two-lobed stigma. 

 The flower-spikes are numerous, and, as 

 the name implies, very handsome, from 

 four to five inches in height, and crowded 

 with flowers. The leaves are about two 

 inches long, obtusely lanceolate, occasion- 

 ally notched at the apex, with a smooth 

 plane surface, subsessile, and rather thick 

 in substance. [R. H.] 



AGASYLLIS. A genus belonging to the 

 umbelliferous order, and consisting of a 

 single species, found in the Caucasus. It 

 is a stout perennial herb, about three feet 

 high, furnished with ternately decompound 

 slightly downy leaves, having lanceolate, 

 decurrent, serrate leaflets. The stems ter- 

 minate in many-rayed umbels, without 

 general, but with partial involucres of 

 narrow leaflets. The flowers are small and 

 white. The chief characters of the genus 

 are an obsolete calyx margin, compressed 

 oval fruit, with five primary obtuse ribs to 

 each carpel, the two lateral ones shorter 

 than the others, and the number of vittae 

 eight to ten on the back, and five to six on 

 the face of each carpel. [A. A. B.] 



AGATH.EA. A genus of the composite 

 family (Compositfc), comprising twenty 

 species, one of them, A. abyssinica, found, 

 as its name implies, in Abyssinia, the others 

 all natives of S. Africa. They are herbs or 

 shrubs, with opposite, toothed or entire 

 leaves, and solitary terminal flower-heads ; 

 the ray florets blue and pistilliferous, 

 those of the disk yellow, and having both 

 stamens and pistils. They are nearly allied 

 to the well-known Michaelmas daisy (Aster), 

 from which they differ chiefly in the pappus 

 of their aehenes consisting of one series of 

 bristles. [A. A. B.] 



AGATHELPIS. A genus of Cape under- 



shrubs, with alternate linear-filiform leaves 

 and terminal flower-spikes, belonging to 

 the natural order Selaginacece. The genus 

 is characterised by having a five-toothed 

 tubular calyx, an elongated tubular corolla, 

 two included stamens, and a bilocular ovary 

 with a single ovule. By the abortion of 

 one of the cells of the ovary, the fruit is a 

 simple achene, covered by the persistent 

 calyx. [W. C] 



AGATHOPHYLLUM. A name intended 

 to express the good qualities of the leaves 

 of the plants to which it is applied. The 

 genus belongs to the laurel family, among 

 which it may be known by its persistent 

 calyx enclosing the fruit, and by its pos- 

 sessing nine stamens in three rows. The 

 innermost stamens have, on either side 

 of their base, a sessile awl-shaped gland 

 or abortive stamen. The anthers are four- 

 celled. One species, A. aromaticum, grows 

 in Madagascar, where the natives use the 

 leaves for a condiment. The fruit is aro- 

 matic, but encloses a kernel of an acrid 

 caustic taste, known as Madagascar clove 

 nutmegs. [M. T. M.] 



AGATHOSMA. A genus of rutaceous 

 plants, so named from their fragrance. 

 They are natives of the Cape, and have 

 regular flowers. The petals are divided, 

 with long claws. They have ten stamens, 

 five of which are fertile, with the anthers 

 tipped by a small gland, and five sterile, 

 dilated above into a petal-like mass, thread- 

 shaped below. The fruit is two to three- 

 celled, each cell containing two ovules 

 placed side by side. A. pulchella is said to 

 be made use of by the Hottentots to an- 

 oint their bodies, a process very distaste- 

 ful to European noses. Some of the spe- 

 cies are cultivated for their pretty white 

 or purplish flowers. [M. T. M.j 



AGATHOTES. A genus of plants of the 

 gentian family, principally distinguished 

 by its corolla, which is divided above into 

 four pieces, while at the base are a number 

 of small glandular pits, each protected by a 

 fringed scale; and by the stamens, which 

 are four in number, slightly connected to- 

 gether at the base. The dried stems of 

 A. Chirayta, a native of the north of India, 

 furnish a pure bitter, very similar in its 

 properties to gentian, and used for like 

 purposes under the name of Chiretta. By 

 some this plant is referred to the genu's 

 Ophelia. [M. T. M.] 



AGATI. A genus of the pea family 

 (Lerjuminosa?). A. grand/flora is the only 

 species. It is a native of the East Indies 

 and tropical Australia, but is commonly 

 cultivated in tropical countries for the 

 beauty of its flowers. It is a small slender 

 tree twenty or thirty feet high, of rapid 

 growth and short duration; its leaves 

 alternate, abruptly-pinnate, with from 

 eight to ten pairs of small leaflets. Flower 

 stalks axillary, bearing from two to four 

 large pea-like red or white flowers. The 

 pods are about eighteen inches long, and 

 as thick as a common quill. In India the 

 flowers, pods, and young leaves are used 



