ammo] 



Ct)E CreaSurg at 2Satang. 



52 



a many-flowered umbel of greenish-white 

 flowers, which afterwards become pinkish 

 and finally rose-colour. [T. M.] 



AMMONIACUM. A drug said to be ob- 

 tained from Dorema Ammoniacuvi, and 

 also from Ferula tingitana. 



AMMOPHILA. A genus of grasses of 

 the tribe Arundinece, inhabiting the sandy 

 sea-shores of the coasts of Europe and 

 North America, and extensively cultivated 

 in many places, as in the eastern counties 

 of England and in Holland, for preserving 

 the sand-banks which prevent the inroads 

 of the sea. In the northern parts of Eng- 

 land, it is used for making table mats and 

 basket work. It is the widely-creeping and 

 matted rhizomes which serve to bind to- 

 gether the sand-banks on which it grows. 

 The stems grow two or three feet high, 

 and bear long, narrow, rigid involute 

 leaves and a spiked cylindrical panicle, 

 with laterally compressed spikelets. The 

 glumes are nearly equal, and lance-shaped, 

 stiff and chaffy. The flowering glumes, or 

 outer pales, are the shorter, with a tuft of 

 hairs outside, but the inner pales nearly 

 equal them in length. The genus is nearly 

 related to Calamagrostis, from which the 

 inflorescence, the stiff glumes, and the ab- 

 sence of an awn to the flowering glume, 

 serve to distinguish it. The only species, 

 A. arundinacea, or Psamma arenaria, is 

 variously called Maram, Mamma, Sea-reed, 

 or Sea Matweed. [T. M .] 



AMNIOS. The fluid that is produced 

 within the sac which receives the embryo- 

 rudiment and engenders it. 



AMOMUM. A genus of aromatic herbs, 

 belonging to the ginger family, Zingi- 

 beracece. The root-stocks are jointed, 

 creeping ; the leaves placed in two rows, 

 sheathing at the base, lance-shaped, and 

 undivided at the margin. The flowers, in 

 a spike or cluster, are provided with 

 bracts, and but little raised above the 

 ground ; there is but one stamen, whose 

 filament is prolonged beyond the two- 

 celled anther, so as to form a more or less 

 lobed crest ; the capsule is three-celled, 

 and opens, when ripe, by three pieces, so 

 as to liberate the numerous small seeds. 

 These plants are natives of India, the 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago, etc. 

 Their seeds are aromatic and stimulant, 

 and form, with other seeds of similar 

 plants, what are known as Cardamoms, of 

 which there are many kinds. 



Attare, Malaguetta Pepper.or Grains of 

 Paradise, are the seeds of one, perhaps 

 two, species of this genus, A. Grana Para- 

 disi and A. Meleguetta. They are imported 

 from Guinea, and have a very warm, 

 slightly camphor-like taste. These seedsare 

 made use of illegally to give a fictitious 

 strength to spirits and beer, but they are 

 not particularly injurious ; although, from 

 the very heavy penalty inflicted on brewers 

 who have them in their possession, and on 

 druggists who sell them to brewers (200?. 



and 500Z. respectively), it would seem as if 

 such an opinion were entertained. 



The large round China Cardamoms are 

 supposed to be produced by A. globosum, 

 the hairy round China sort by A. villosum, 

 Java Cardamoms by A. maximum ; but the 

 botanical history of the plants producing 



Amomum Grana Paradisi. 



the various kinds of Cardamoms, Grains of 

 Paradise, etc., is involved in much con- 

 fusion and obscurity. Several species of 

 the genus are in cultivation as ornamental 

 stove plants. [M. T. MJ 



AMOMUM. (Fr.) Solatium pseudo-Cap- 

 sicum. 



AMOREUXIA. A genus of Cistacece con- 

 taining two species from Mexico and New 

 Granada. They are herbaceous plants, with 

 the habit of Malva. The root is a large 

 ligneous tuber. The leaves are alternate, 

 on long petioles, and digitato-partite. The 

 large flowers are in terminal racemes, and 

 consist of five oblong persistent sepals, 

 and five caducous obovate petals. The 

 stamens are indefinite and arranged in 

 two bundles, the one having very much 

 longer and stouter filaments than the 

 other. The ovary is ovate and trilocular, 

 with many ovules attached to a central 

 placenta. M. Planchon has joined this 

 genus with Cochlospermum to form a small 

 order Cochlospermece, which he places near 

 Malvacea and Zygophyllacece ; but his rea- 

 sons are not satisfactory for separating 

 them from Cistacece, with which they are 

 more nearly allied. [TV. O] 



AMORPHA. The flowers which belong 

 to the natural order Leguminosae, though 

 composed of petals unequal in size and ir- 

 regular in form, have, for the most part, 

 these organs symmetrically arranged, after 

 the type of the pea and beam In the pre- 



