Ill 



Efjc Crea^urp of 230tang. 



[aven 



tube of the corolla is clavate at the base, 

 and inflated upwards ; the limb is spread- 

 ing and live-cleft. There are four included 

 didynanious stamens, inserted in the base 



' of the tube. The anthers have two cells, 

 the one being perfect, ovate-acuminate, the 

 other abortive, longer and subulate. The 



i ovary is two-celled, and contains mahy 

 ovules : and the style is terminated by a 

 clavate involute stigma. [W. CJ 



AULNE. (Fr.) Alnus glutinosa. — NOIR. 

 Bhamnus Frangula. 



AUNE'E. (Fr.) Inula Helenium. 



AFRAXTIACE-E. (Aurantia, Citron- 

 worts.) The orange, lemon, and similar 

 fruits, are produced by trees belonging 

 to a natural order bearing this . name. 

 They are all bushy or woody plants, having 

 the leaves filled with transparent oil-cysts, 

 giviug them a dotted appearance, a defi- 

 nite number of bypogynous stamens, and 

 a fruit more or less pulpy. Less than 100 

 species are known. The various genera are 

 almost exclusively found in the East In- 

 dies, whence they have in some cases 

 spread over the rest of the tropics. Men- 

 tion is made of a wild orange of Brazil, 

 which has a mawkish sweet taste, but must 

 have been introduced. The Sklmmias are 

 remarkable among so tender a race for the 

 hardiness of their constitution. 



AURICULA. Primula, Auricula, a fa- 

 vourite garden flower. 



AURICULARIXT. An order of hymen- 

 omycetous Fungi, distinguished by the 

 hymenium being destitute of gills, pores, 

 prickles, or other decided prominences. In 

 a few species of one genus only there are 

 a few obscure folds or papilla?. The nobler 



j species have the hymenium inferior, as in 

 the mushrooms, &c. : but as the order con- 



i tains a great mass of a low condition of 

 organisation, very" many of the species are 

 permanently glued to the substance from 

 which they spring. But even amongst 

 these there is a tendency to become free 

 at the margin, and to reflect it so as to 

 take the hymenium away from the light. 

 Several of the species are amongst the most 

 common of fungi. The yellow Stereum hir- 

 sutism grows on almost every oak log, and 

 the purple Stereum purpureum on every 

 fallen poplar. The dark Indigo-blue Corti- 

 ciura caruleum, so common on damp rotten 

 rails, is said to be occasionally phosphor- 

 escent. The order is distinguished from the 

 TremelUni by the expanded horizontal hy- 

 menium, which is, besides, more definite, 

 and formed after the same type as that of 

 the higher orders of the family, whereas in 

 the TremelUni the fructifying cells or spi- 

 rophores are of unequal length. There is, 

 moreover, in the higher Auricular i.ni a 

 distinct pileus, while in the Tremellini, with. 

 the exception of Hirniola and Exidin, 

 where there is often a distinct barren 

 outer coat, as in Peziza, the w T hole surface, 

 even in the highest species, bears fruit. 

 ~So plant of the order is known to have 

 any economical use. [M. J. B.] 



AURICULATE. Having a pair of small 

 round lobes or ears, as is the case with 

 many leaves. 



AUROJSTE FEMELLE. (Fr.) Santolina 

 Cliamcccyparissus. — MALE. Artemisia 

 Abrotanum. 



AVA. A kind of pepper, called Macro- 

 piper Methysticum. The name is also given | 

 to a spirit distilled in the Sandwich Is- j 

 lands from the root of a species of Cordy- 

 line. 



AVANT-PAQUES. (Fr.) Tulipa sylves- 

 tris. 



AVENA. Oat grass. A genus distin- 

 guished by large membranaceous outer 

 pales, enclosing from two to three florets, 

 each armed with a bent more or less 

 twisted awn. 



Meadow species : A. pubescens, Downy 

 Oat Grass : leaves downy, with soft 

 hairs; a common meadow-grass in lime- 

 stone pastures, which should be included 

 in the seeds for such situations. A. pra- 

 tensis, Narrow-leaved Oat Grass; leaves 

 hard and rigid ; a denizen of moors and 

 poor clays. Its specific name is inappro- 

 priate as its favourite habitat is seldom 

 worthy of the name of meadow. A. alpina, 

 Great Alpine Oat Grass; a larger and 

 coarser form than the preceding, of which 

 it is probably a mountain variety. A. fla- 

 vescens, Yellow Oat Grass ; flowers small 

 yellow: an upland pasture grass of con- 

 siderable merit. 



Agrarian species : A. strigosa, Bristle- 

 pointed Oat; seeds much like those of 

 Corn Oats, the awned inner pales with two 

 long bristly points ; occasionally met with 

 in corn-fields, where it has probably 

 been introduced with foreign seed. A. 

 fatua, "Wild Oat ; awn much bent, the 

 lower half twisted, the inner pales covered 

 with stiff hairs. These peculiarities give 

 the seed so much the apppearance of a fly, 

 that the rustics often make use of it in 

 trout fishing, and as the twisted awn un- 

 coils when it comes in contact with the 

 water, the fish is deceived by its apparent 

 struggling ; this property of the awn has 

 likewise caused it to be used as a hygro- 

 meter ; it is a common weed in clay soils. 



The two latter species have lately at- 

 tracted considerable attention from their 

 connection with agriculture. Dr. Lindley, 

 in an article in Morton's Cyclopcedia of 

 Agriculture, suggested that the cultivated 

 Oat Ms a domesticated variety of some wild 

 species, and may be not improbably re- 

 ferred to Avena strigosa ;' but perhaps, 

 after all, the A. strigosa may be but a 

 variety of A. fatua, from the cultivation of 

 which it has been shown that Cereal or 

 crop Oats may be grown, in illustration of 

 which we here give a short account of our 

 own experiments. 



In 1852 we sowed a plot of the seeds of 

 A. fatua, collected in 1851 : they grew well, 

 but were scarcely different from the wild 

 plant, except in a tendency to an increased 

 plumpness of grain. The produce of this 



