70 A M 0 
AMMUNITION BHF. AD, ‘SHOES, &C. SUctl 
as are served out to the soldiers of an army or 
garrison. 
AMNIOS, a thin pellucid membrane, 
which surrounds the foetus. See Anatomy 
and Physiology. 
AMOEBCEUM. a poem, or other compo- 
sition, in which two parties speak alternately 
in the same number of verses, but so as that 
he who answers, either goes beyond or con- 
tradicts the other; such are the third and se- 
'venth Eclogues of Virgil. 
A MOGABARI, antient Spanish soldiery 
greatlv celebrated for bravery. 
AMOGLOSSUS, a name of a peculiar 
kind of flat fish, something resembling a soul, 
and called also a lantern. 
AMOK, a term used as a catch-" ord 
among the slaves in Batavia ; who, when they 
consider themselves as aggrieved, sally forth, 
shouting out amok, amok, and murder all 
they meet. 
AMOMUM, a genus of the monondria 
tnonogtjnia class and order. The characters 
are • the calyx is an obscure three-toothed 
perianthium, above: the coi'olla is monope- 
talous, the tubes short, the limbus tripartite ; 
the stamina is an oblong filament, with the 
anthera adjoining ; the pistilium has a round- 
ish germen, beneath ; the style is filiform, the 
stigma obtuse ; the pericarpium is leathery, 
subovate, trigonous, trilocular, and three- 
valved ; the seeds are numerous. Of this ge- 
nus there are 12 species, the principal of 
which are, 
1. Amomum Zinziber, or common ginger, 
a native of the East, and also of some parts of 
the West Indies ; where it grows naturally 
without culture. The roots are jointed, and 
spread in the ground : they put out many 
green reed-like stalks in the spring, which 
rise to the height of two feet and a half, with 
narrow leaves. The flower stems rise by 
the side of these, immediately from the root ; 
these are naked, ending with an oblong scaly 
spike. From each of these scales is produced 
a single blue flower, whose petals are but 
little lower than the squamous covering. 
All the species are tender, and require a stove 
to preserve them in this country. They are 
easily propagated by parting the roots in the 
Spring. 
2. Amomum Zerumbet, or wild ginger, 
also a native of India. The roots are larger 
than /chose of the common ginger, but are 
jointed in the same manner. 'The stalks grow 
from 3 to near 4 feet high, with oblong leaves 
placed alternately. The flower-stems arise 
immediately from the root : these are termi- 
nated by oblong, blunt, scalv heads ; out of 
each scale is produced a single white flower, 
whose petals extend a considerable length 
beyond the scaly covering. 
3. Amomum Cardamomum, or carda- 
mom, is a native of India, but is littie known 
in this country except by its seeds, which are 
used in medicine. Of this there is a variety, 
with smaller fruit, which makes the distinc- 
tion into cardamomum majus and minus. 
4. Amomum Grana Paradisi, is likewise a 
native of the East Indies. The fruit contain- 
ing the grains of paradise is about the size of 
a fig, divided into 3 cells, in each of which 
are contained two small seeds like car- 
damoms. They are somewhat more grate- 
ful, and considerably more pungent, than 
cardamoms! 
The dried roots of the 1st species are of 
AMP 
great use in the kitchen, as well as in medi- 
cine. T hey furnish a considerable export 
from some of the American islands. The 
green roots, preserved as a sweetmeat, are 
preferable to every other. The Indians 
mix them with their rice, w hich is their com- 
mon food, to correct its natural insipidity. 
Ginger is a very useful spice in cold flatulent 
colics, and in laxity and debility of the intes- 
tines ; it does not he*i so much as those of 
the pepper kind, but its effects are much 
more durable. The cardamoms and grains 
of paradise have the same medicinal qualities 
with ginger. 
Amomum, in the materia medica, a 
name given to the seed of an aromatic plant, 
esteemed a powerful diuretic, and aperient ; 
and consequently thought good in nephritic 
cases, obstructions of the viscera, and sup- 
pression of the menses, It is now disused. 
AMOPHILA, a name proposed for a new 
genus of hymenopterous insects, with beak 
conic, inflected, concealing a bilid, retractile, 
tubular tongue. 
AMORPHA, in botany, a genus of plants, 
belonging to the diadelphia decandria class and 
order of Linnams ; the flower of which consists 
of one petal vertically ovated, hollow and erect ; 
and the fruit is a lupulated pod, of a com- 
pressed form, and covered with tubercles, in 
which are contained two seeds, of an oblong 
kidney-like shape. The essential character 
is : standard of the corolla ovate, concave : 
wings none, cal. none. We know of but one 
species, a very elegant shrub, vulgarly called 
bastard indigo, as formerly in Carolina a 
coarse sort of indigo was made from the 
young shoots. With us it is perfectly hardy. 
AMORTIZATION, in law, the alienation 
of lands or tenements to a corporation or 
fraternity and their successors. 
Amortization also denotes the privilege of 
taking lands, See, in mortmain, for which pur- 
pose the king’s consent must first be obtained. 
Phis licence is granted upon paying to the 
king and the superior a certain sum to indem- 
nify them for several incidental dues, which 
in the common way would have fallen to 
them, but by the amortization are cut off. 
AMPELlS, in zoology, the chatterer, a 
genus of birds belonging to the order of pas- 
seres ; the distinguishing characters of which 
are, that the .tongue is furnished- with a rim 
or margin all round, and the bill is conical and 
straight. There are <7 species, all natives of 
foreign countries, except the garrulus, which 
is a native both of Europe and the West In- 
dies. In the former, the native country 
of these birds is Bohemia; whence they 
wander over the rest of Europe, and were 
once superstitiously considered as presages of 
a pestilence. They appear annually about 
Edinburgh in February, and feed on the ber- 
ries of the mountain-ash. They also appear 
as far S. as Northumberland; and, like the 
fieldfare, make the berries of the white thorn 
their food. It is but by accident that they 
ever appear farther south. They are gregari- 
ous ; feed on grapes, where vineyards are cul- 
tivated ; are easily tamed, and are esteemed 
delicious food. This species is about the size of 
the blackbird; the hill is short, thick, and black; 
on the head is a sharp- pointed crest reclining 
backwards ; the lower part of the tail is black, 
the end of a rich yellow; the quill feathers are 
black, the three first tipt with white, the six 
next have half an inch of their exterior mar- 
gin edged with line yellow, the interior with 
AMP 
white. But what distinguishes this from all 
other birds, are the thorny appendages from 
the tips of seven of the secondary feathers, 
of the colour and gloss of the best red wax. 
See Plate, Nat. Hist. fig. 15,* 16*. 
AMPELITES, Cannei-coal, in natural 
history, a solid, dry, opake fossil, very hard, 
not fusible, but easily inflammable, and burn- 
ing with a bright, vivid, white flame. This 
mineral is found in Lancashire, and in differ- 
ent parts of Scotland, where it is known by 
the name of Parrot coal. Colour black'; 
structure sometimes slaty. It burns like a 
candle, and lasts but a short time. It does 
not cake, and leaves a stony or sooty resi- 
duum. 
A specimen of Lancashire cannel coal, 
analysed by Mr. Kirwan, contained 
' 75.20 'charcoal 
21.68 maltha 
'3.10 alumina and silica 
99.98 
Cannel coal is susceptible of polish, and, 
like jet, is frequently wrought into snuff-boxes, 
and other trinkets. 
AMPHERES, in antiquity, a kind of ves- 
sels, wherein the rowers plied two oars at the 
same time, one with the right, hand, and the 
other with the left. 
AM PHIARTHROSIS, in 1 anatomy, a term 
under which some comprehend all those 
junctures of the bones, which have a mani- 
fest motion, and which differ from the several 
articulations of the . diarthrosis either in re- 
gard to their figure or motion. 
AMPHIBIA, the third class of animals in 
the Linnaean system, including those which 
possess, in a certain degree, the power of re- 
spiration, and are thereby enabled to live 
either in water or on land. This, class is 
subdivided into four orders, viz. 1st. Amphibia 
reptiles, 2d. Amphibia serpentes, 3d. Amphi- 
bia nantes, and 4th. Amphibia meantes. The 
distinguishing characters of this class are 
these; they have either naked or scaly bo- 
dies, and sharp-pointed fore-teeth, but with- 
out grinders, or dentes molares : to which 
add, that they have no radiated fins. The 
class includes the tortoise, the frog kind, and 
the lizard and serpent kinds: 289 species. 
Anatomists observe, that the lungs of am- 
phibious animals are so formed, that though 
respiration is necessary to them, yet it is not 
requisite to be performed at short intervals. 
Hence it is, that they can remain a long time 
under water without being suffocated, and 
many of them even a considerable part of 
their lives. 
Am ph ib io us,a term descriptive of the class 
Amphibia: it also applies, however, to the 
otter, seal, beaver, and some animals of the 
other classes, who live on the land, and 
occasionally go into tiie water in search of 
prey. 
Most of the amphibious animals of this de- 
scription have peculiar provisions in their 
structure to fit them for their mode of living, 
particularly in the heart, lungs, foramen 
ovale, &c. T here are two very curious and 
important disquisitions by Dr. Parsons on 
this subject, in the 56 vol of the Phil. Trans, 
the substance of which is as follows. Dr. 
Parsons classes amphibious animals under two 
divisions: 1. Such as enjoy their chief func- 
tions by land, but occasionally go into the 
water. 2. Such as chiefly inhabit the water, 
but occasionally go on shore. 
