AUG 
185 A V E 
three species, all trees, and natives of South 
America. 
AUCTION, sales by auction are subject 
to many legal regulations : .the auctioneer 
is obliged to take out a licence ; and is sub- 
ject to various penalties if he is negligent of 
certain acts of parliament, made principally 
since the 19th of the present reign. 
AU * BA, in botany, a genus of the mo- 
noecia tetandria class and order. The essen- 
tial character is: male cal. 4-toothed; cor. 4- 
petalled; berry 1 -seeded: fern. nect. none; 
nut one-celled. 
There is but one species of this beautiful 
tree, the specific name of which is Japoniea, 
to note its native place. Notwithstanding 
tills, it is found to be very hardy ; and being 
easily propagated by cuttings, it is now be- 
come very common in our gardens, though it 
does not seem with us as yet to attain a 
growth beyond that of a shrub. The leaves' 
are beautifully spotted with white or yellow, 
and among other shrubs it makes a line ap- 
pearance. 
AUD1ENDO et Terminando, a com- 
mission directed to certain persons when 
any riotous assembly, insurrection, &c. is 
committed in any place, for appeasing it, and 
punishing the offenders. 
AU Di ENTES, an order of catechumens 
in the primitive Christian church, consisting 
of such as were but newly instructed in the 
mysteries of the Christian religion, and not 
yet admitted to baptism. 
AUDITA QUERELA, a writ that lies 
where any person lias any thing to plead, 
but has not a day in court for pleading it ; 
or where judgment is given for debt, and 
the defendant’s body in execution ; then if 
lie has a release, or "other sufficient cause to 
be discharged therefrom, but wants a day in 
court to plead the same, this writ may be 
granted by the lord-chancellor, upon view 
of the exception suggested to the judges of 
either bench. 
AUDITOR of the receipts, is an officer of 
the exchequer who tiles the tellers’ bills, 
makes an entry of them, and gives the lord 
treasurer a certificate of the money received 
the week before. He also makes deben- 
tures to every teller, before they receive any 
juouey, and takes their accounts. He keeps 
the black book of receipts, and the treasurer’s 
key of the treasury, and sees every teller’s 
money locked up in the new treasury. 
Auditory nerves, in anatomy, a pair of 
nerves arising from the medulla oblongata, 
with two trunks, the one of which is called 
the portio dura, hard po.tion, the other portio 
mollis, or soft portion. See Anatomy. 
A\ if C LA N E, in heraldry, a cross, the 
quarters of which somewhat resemble a fil- 
bert-nut. 
AVENA, oats, a genus of the digynia 
order, belongingto the triandria class of plants, 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
4th order, gramina. The calyx has a double 
valve, and the awn on the back is contorted. 
There are 25 species, of which the iirst six 
following are natives of England. 
1 . Avena flatior, tall oat grass. 
2. Avena fatua, the bearded oat grass. 
3. Avena flavescens, the yellow oat grass. 
4. Avena nuda, the naked oat. 
5. Avena pratensis, the meadow oat grass. 
<i. Avena pubescens, the rough oat grass. 
7. Avena sativa, the common oats culti- 
A V E 
rated in our fields. It is remarkable that the 
original native place of this plant is almost 
totally unknown. Anson says that he observ- 
ed it growing wild or spontaneously in the 
island of J uan Fernandez ; but a vague ob- 
servation from a single author is not to be de- 
pended on. Oats are an article of tiro ma- 
teria medica. Gruels made from them have 
a kind of soft mucilaginous quality, by which 
they obtund acrimonious humours, and prove 
useful in inflammatory diseases, coughs, 
hoarseness, and exulcerations of the fauces. 
A YEN AG E, in law, a certain quantity of 
oals paid by a tenant to a landlord instead of 
Eent, or some other duties. 
AVERAGE, in commerce, is divided 
into three kinds. 1. The simple or par- 
ticular average, which consists in the ex- 
traordinary expences incurred for the ship 
alone, or for the merchandizes alone. Such 
is the loss of anchors, masts, and rigging, oc- 
easionedbv the common accidents at sea, the 
damages which happen to merchandize by 
storm, prize, shipwreck, wet, or rotting ; ail 
which must be borne and paid by the thing 
which suffered the damage. 2. r I he large 
and common average, being those expences 
incurred, and damages sustained, for the com- 
mon good and security botli of the mer- 
chandizes and vessels, consequently to be 
borne by the ship and cargo, and to be re- 
gulated upon the whole. Of this number are 
the goods or money given for the ransom of 
the ship and cargo, things thrown overboard 
forthe safety of the ship, the expences of un- 
lading for entering into a river or harbour, 
and the provisions and hire of the sailors 
when the ship is put under an embargo. 
3. The small averages, which are the ex- 
pences for towing and piloting the ship out 
of or into harbours, creeks, or rivers, one- 
third of which must be charged to the ship, 
and two-thirds to the cargo. 
Average, in agriculture, a term used by 
farmers, in many parts of England, for the 
stubble, or remainder of straw and grass left 
in corn-fields after the harvest is carried in. 
In some counties it is called gratten. 
AVERIA, in a general sense, signifies any 
cattle, but it is used in law for oxen or horses 
of the plough. 
Averia, in commerce, a branch of Spa- 
nish revenue that denotes a tax paid on ac- 
count of convoys to guard the ships sailing to 
and from America, which w T as first imposed 
when sir Francis Drake made his expedition 
to the South Sea. 
AVERMENT, an offer of the defendant 
to make good an exemption pleaded in abate- 
ment, or bar of the plaintiff’s action. 
Averment, general, is the conclusion of 
every plea to the writ, or in bar of repli- 
cations, or other pleadings, containing mat- 
ter affirmative. 
Averment, particular, is when the life 
of a tenant for life, or tenant in tail, is averred. 
AVERRIiOA, in botany, a genus of the 
decandria order, belongingto the pentagynia 
class of plants, and in the natural method 
ranking under the 1 4th order, gruinales. The 
calyx lias five leaves; the petals are five, 
opening at top ; and the apple or fruit is 
pentagonous, and divided into five cells. 
There are two species : 
The averrhoa carambola, called in Bengal 
the camrue or camrunga, is a tree which 
grows to the height of 14 feet, and is remark- 
able for possessing a power somewhat similar to 
those species of mimosa which are termed 
sensitive plants ; its leaves, on being touched, 
moving very perceptibly. In the mimosa the 
moving faculty extends to the branches ; but 
from the hardness of the wood this cannot 
be expected in the carambola. The leaves 
are alternately pinnated with an odd one-; 
and their most common position in the day- 
time is horizontal. On being touched, they 
move themselves downward, frequently in 
so great a degree that the two opposite 
almost touch one another by their under 
sides, and the young ones sometimes either 
come into contact, or even pass each other. 
The whole of the leaves of one pinna move 
by striking, the branch with the nail of the 
linger or other hard substance, or each leaf 
can be moved singly by making an impression 
that shall not- extend beyond that leaf. Not- 
withstanding this apparent sensibility of the 
leaf, however, large incisions may be made- 
in it with a pair of sharp scissars, without 
occasioning the smallest motion nay, it 
may even be cut almost entirely off, and the 
remaining parts still continue unmoved, when- 
by touching the wounded leaf with the? 
finger or point of the scissars, motion will 
take place as if no injury had been offered. 
The reason is, that although the leaf is the 
ostensible part which moves, the petiolus is- 
the seat both of sense and action. After sun- 
set the leaves go to sleep, first moving down 
so as to touch one another by their under 
sides: they therefore perform more extensive 
motion at night of themselves than they can 
be made to do in the day-time by external 
impressions. W ith a convex lens the rays 
of the sun may be collected on a leaf, so as. 
to burn a hole in it, w ithout occasioning any 
motion ; but upon trying the experiment on 
the petioius, the motion is as quick as if; 
from strong percussion, although the rays be 
not so much concentrated as to cause pain 
when applied in the same degree on the back, 
of the hand. The leaves move very fast 
from the electrical shock, even although very 
gentle. The fruit o of this tree is said to be 
delicious.. 
AVERRUNCI, in the antient heathen, 
theology, an order of deities among the Ro- 
mans, w hose peculiar office it was to avert 
danger and exile. 
AVERSIONE venire, in civil law, seeing 
to denote the selling or letting things in the 
lump, without fixing any particular prices 
for each piece. 
AUG1T, silex augites, in mineralogy, 
lire colour of this mineral is a deep olive cr 
pear green : it sometimes occurs in rounded 
fragments, but more usually crystallized, See 
Mineralogy. 
AUGMENTATION was the name of a 
court erected 27 Hen. VIII., so called from 
the augmentation of the revenues of the 
crown, by the suppression of religious houses; 
and the office still remains, wherein there- 
are many curious records, though the court 
has been dissolved long since. 
Augmentation, in heraldry, are addi- 
tional charges to a court armour, frequently 
given as particular marks of honour. 
AE T GUR, an officer among the Romans 
appointed to foretel future events. There 
was a college or community of them con- 
sisting originally of three members, with 
respect to the three tribes, Luceres, Rham- 
