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AMATJROPELTA. A name given by 

 Kunze to a "West Indian Fern, supposed to 

 have some affinity with the davallioid 

 group, sometimes called Saccoloma. It is 

 now referred to Lastrea. [T. MJ 



AMBATCHA. Arum abyssinicum. 



AMBER TREE. A common name for 

 Anthospermum. 



AMBERBOA. A genus of composites, 

 several of the plants composing which 

 have long been cultivated under the more 

 familiar name of C'entaurea, from which 

 genus the present one differs only in a few 

 obscure and minute characters of the fruit 

 and pappus. The two best-known species 

 are the A. odorata, or Yellow Sweet Sultan, 

 and the A. moschata or Purple Sultan. 

 Both are branching annuals, growing a 

 foot or more high, with oblong pinnatifld 

 foliage, and large terminal showy flower- 

 heads. Those of the first are character- 

 ised by having the outer florets much 

 longer than those of the centre, and the 

 fruit is crowned with a short pappus of 

 hairs. In the case of the latter species, 

 A. moschata, the pappus is altogether 

 wanting, and the florets of the circumfer- 

 ence are scarcely longer than the central 

 ones. The odour of this species is hardly 

 suggestive of musk, as its name would im- 

 ply, but is rather honey-like, differing but 

 little from that of the Yellow Sultan, ex- 

 cept in its greater intensity. [W. TJ 



AMBLYOCARPUM. The generic name 

 of a Persian weed of no beauty, belonging 

 to the composite family, and closely re- 

 lated to Carpesium, but differing in the 

 strap-shaped and female ray florets being 

 in a single row, as well as in the achenes 

 —which are five, angular, and without pap- 

 pus — being beakless. The plant is called 

 A. inuloides from its resemblance to our 

 fleabane (Inula Pulicaria). Its lance- 

 shaped leaves are, however, longer and 

 smooth, not downy. The yellow flower 

 heads are single at the ends of the twigs, 

 and nearly half an men across. [A. A. BJ 



AMBLYOLEPI8. A Texian genus of 

 composites, of which a single species, A 

 setigera, is in cultivation, and possesses 

 some interest from the pleasing fragrance 

 of its flowers, which they retain for many 

 years when dried. This fragrance, which 

 the seeds of the plant possess in a high 

 degree, is doubtless due to the presence 

 of coumarin, the chemical principle to 

 which the well-known tonka bean, and 

 the common vernal grass, Anthoxanthum 

 odoratum, also owe their agreeable scent. 

 The species in question is a dwarf, erect, 

 branching annual, with entire, ovate, 

 lance-shaped, stem-clasping leaves, two 

 to three inches long, the branches being 

 terminated by a single flower-head one 

 and a half inch in diameter, with a ray of 

 broadly wedge-shaped florets, and a disk 

 of tubular ones, both being of a uniform 

 orange-yellow colour. The involucre con- 

 i about ten ovate, lance-shaped, 

 spreading bracts, the receptacle is naked J 



and conical, and the villous fruit is 

 crowned by a pappus of five broad, blunt, 

 transparent, colourless scales. [W. T.] 



AMBORA. A genus of Monimiacece, con- 

 sisting of trees from Madagascar and 

 Mauritius, with entire evergreen leaves, 

 and monoecious flowers, generally in ra- 

 cemes, though sometimes solitary, rising 

 from the trunk or lower parts of the 

 branches. The male flowers are scattered 

 among the more numerous females. 

 The stamens are numerous, with short 

 filaments and bilocular anthers. There 

 are many one-celled ovaries, each contain- 

 ing a single ovule. The fruit consists of 

 many one-seeded drupes, enclosed in the 

 enlarged calyx, which gives it a baccate 

 appearance. The bark and leaves exhale 

 an aromatic odour. [W.CJ 



AM BORN. (Fr.) Cytisus Laburnum. 



AMBOYNA WOOD. The beautifully 

 mottled wood of Pterospermum indicium. 



AMBRETTE JATJNE. (Fr.) Amberboa 

 odorata. — MUSQUE'E. Hibiscus Abel- 

 moschus. 



AMBRINA. A genus of plants belong- 

 ing to the natural order Chenopodiacece. 

 It comprises annual or perennial plants, 

 with alternate, nearly sessile, cleft or 

 sinuous leaves, covered, like the whole of 

 the plants, wijh resinous spots. The 

 flowers are clustered in heads, which are 

 placed in the axils of the leaves, or in 

 leafless or leafy terminal spikes. The 

 genus is allied to Chenopodium, from which 

 itdiffers in its obovate fruit, not depressed 

 in the centre, and by the seeds being 

 placed vertically in the seed vessel, not 

 horizontally. From the genus Blitum it 

 differs in the calyx, becoming of a pen- 

 tagonal shape when it invests the fruit. 

 All the species have an aromatic odourj 

 and possess tonic and stimulant pro- 

 perties. A. pinnatiflda is cultivated for 

 the sake of its elegant and aromatic foli- 

 age. A. ambrosioides, or Mexican Tea, ori- 

 ginally a native of North America, but 

 long naturalised in the south of Europe is 

 used medicinally in the form of an infu- 

 sion, having antispasmodic vermifuge and 

 carminative properties. A. anthrhahdica 

 is common in the Southern States of 

 America, where it is employed as a ver- 

 mifuge. [M. T. MJ 



AMBROISE. A name given in Jersey 

 to Teucrium Scorodonia. 



AMBROISINE. (Fr.) Chenopodium am- 

 brosioides. 



AMBROSIA. A genus of the composite 

 family (Compositce), chiefly annual coarse- 

 habited weeds, with opposite, or alternate 

 lobed, or dissected leaves and the flower- 

 heads in racemes or in bundles in the 

 axils of the leaves. The sterile and fer- 

 tile flowers occupy different heads on the 

 same plant. The sterile involucres, some- 

 what top-shaped, composed of seven to 

 twelve scales, united into a cup, and con- 



