ALEU] 



Wfyz CrcaSurg of 2S0tang. 



ALEURITES. A genus of the spurge- 

 wort family (Euphorbiacece). The only 

 species, A. triloba, called the Candleberry 

 tree, forms a tree of considerable magni- 

 tude, attaining the height of thirty to forty 

 feet, and, though originally a native of 

 the Moluccas and the S. Pacific Isles, is 

 commonly cultivated in tropical countries 

 for the sake of its nuts. The leaves are al- 

 ternate, four to eight inches long, stalked, 

 and without stipules, either oval acute and 

 entire, or from three to five lobed, and, 

 like all the young parts, covered with a 

 whitish starry pubescence. The flowers 

 are small and white, growing in clusters 

 at the apex of the branches, the males and 

 females together in the same cluster, the 

 former being the most numerous. The 

 fruit is two-celled, fleshy, roundish, and 

 when ripe of an olive colour, its greatest 

 diameter about two and a half inches : each 

 cell contains one seed, in form something 

 like a small walnut, the outer shell of which 

 is very hard. The kernels, when dried and 

 stuck on a reed, are used by the Polyne- 

 sian islanders as a substitute for candles; 

 and as an article of food in New Georgia. 

 Tbey are said to taste like walnuts. When 

 pressed they yield a large proportion of 

 pure palatable oil, used as a drying oil for 

 paint, and known as Country "Walnut Oil 

 and Artists' Oil. In Ceylon it is called Ke- 

 kune Oil, and in the Sandwich Islands, 

 where it 'is used as a mordant for their 

 vegetable dyes,' Kukui Oil. In these is- 

 lands alone about 10,000 gallons are annu- 

 ally produced. It has been imported to this 

 country, but not to any considerable extent, 

 and fetches about 20/. per imperial ton. The 

 cake, after the oil has been expressed, is 

 esteemed as a food for cattle, and also as 

 manure. ' The root of the tree affords a 

 brown dye, which is used by the Sandwich 

 Islanders for their native cloths.' The 

 plant is known in India under the name of 

 Indian Akhrout. [A. A. B.] 



ALEXANDERS. A common name for 

 Smymium olnsatrnm. Sometimes written 

 Alisanders. —.GOLDEN. An American 

 name for Ztzia. 



ALFA. The fibre of Macrochloa tenacis- 

 shna, used in Algeria for paper-making. 



ALFALFA. The Spanish name of Lu- 

 cerne, Medicago sativa, 



ALFREDIA. A genus of the composite 

 family, founded on the Cnicu? cernuus of 

 old authors, which was cultivated in this 

 country so long ago as 1760 by Miller in 

 the Chelsea garden, and was figured by 

 him in a publication illustrating his re- 

 nowned Gardener's Dictionary. A.ccrnua, 

 a native of Siberia, is a rank-grow- 

 iiitr, thistle-like plant, one to seven feet 

 high, with stalked heart-shaped root-leaves 

 nearly a foot long, having their serrate 

 blades white underneath, and their foot- 

 stalks crisped and prickly; the stem 

 leaves are sessile and heart-shaped, except 

 the uppermost, which are narrow lance- 

 shaped. Each branch ends in a nodding 



yellow thistle-head, rather more than an 

 inch across, containing numerous- tubular 

 florets, enclosed by an involucre of spiny- 

 pointed and lacerated scales. From Ser- 

 ratula the genus differs in the pappus 

 hairs (which crown the obovate streaked 

 achenes) being bearded instead of rough, 

 as well as in the long feathery tails of the 

 anthers. Four species are known, all 

 Siberian. [A. A. B.] 



ALG2E. A large and important tribe of 

 cryptogams, far the greater part of which 

 live either in salt or fresh water, a few only 

 deriving their nourishment from the mois- 

 ture contained in the surrounding air. 

 Though many of them are confined to par- 

 ticular kinds of rocks, and have something 

 resembling a root, it is not probable that 

 they draw any important part of their 

 nourishment from the substance on which 

 tbey grow. 



The higher Algce have a distinct stem, 

 from which arise variously-shaped expan- 

 sions, which often assume the semblance 

 of leaves; but, though these are often 

 strictly symmetrical, they never follow the 

 spiral arrangement which is so marked in 

 phrenogams, and which exists even among 

 mosses. In many the stem is quite ob- 

 literated, and the whole plant consists of 

 an expanded membrane, consisting of one 

 or more strata of cells, as the case may be. 

 Frequently there is no expansion, and the 

 whole plant, whether solid or flstulose, 

 simple or branched, is everywhere more or 

 less cylindrical. In other cases, again, it 

 consists of a mere string of articulations ; 

 while in others, the whole is reduced to an 

 adnate crust or a shapeless jelly, or to 

 single cells. In one curious division, the 

 frond, though often much divided, con- 

 sists of a single cell only, however com- 

 plicated, filled with endochrome. Whatever 

 the colour of Algce may be, it appears that 

 they act upon the atmosphere in the same 

 way as pha?nogams, that is to say, that 

 they absorb carbonic acid and give out 

 oxyeren under the influence of light. 



Algce, whatever may be their outer form, 

 or whatever their degree of complication, 

 are cellular plants, in a very few instances 

 only presenting anything like vessels, 

 though the cell-walls themselves have fre- 

 quently a spiral structure. The spores are 

 often nothing more than the endochromes 

 of cells, whether terminal, or chained to- 

 gether like the beads of a necklace, more 

 consolidated than usual, and occasionally 

 broken up into four or more distinct re- 

 productive bodies. There are often two 

 sorts of fruit upon the same or on-different 

 fronds, the one of which is regularly tetra- 

 spermous, the other variable in character, 

 presenting often the appearance of a cap- 

 sule perforated at the apex. Amongst the 

 lower Algce the spores are often furnished 

 with one or more flagelliform pro© - 

 with vibrating cilia?, by means of which 

 they move from place to place for a greater 

 or less time, as if endowed with spontane- 

 ous motion, till they become attached and 

 germinate. In most of the subdivisions 



