ALA 
A I R 
June, it continued in a reforbing ftate, fo as to reforb 
13 cubic inches : that there were at that feafon many 
hot days, with much thunder and lightning, which 
deftroys the elafticity of the air : there were generated 
in all 489 cubic inches, of which 48 were abforbed. 
The liquor was at laft vapid. 
On the 10th of Align'd, 26 cubic inches of Apples 
being mafhed, they generated 986 cubic incites of air 
- in 13 days time, which is a quantity equal .to 48 times 
their bulk ; after which they reforbed a quantity equal 
to their bulk, in three or four days, notwithftanding 
the weather was then very hot •, after which time they 
were ftationary for many days, neither generating nor 
abforbing. 
From which before-mentioned experiments on Raifms 
and ale, the ingenious author concludes, that wine 
and ale do not turn vapid in warm weather by im- 
bibing the air, but by fermenting and generating too 
much ; by which means they are deprived of their 
- enlivening principle the air : for which reafon, thtefe 
liquors are belt preferved in cool cellars, whereby this 
. shelve invigorating principle is kept within due 
bounds •, which when they exceed, wines are upon 
the fret, and are in danger of being fpoiled. 
Upon thefe, and many other experiments, which the 
learned author has given in his aforefaid treatife, he 
obferves, that this air which arifes in fo great quan- 
tities from fermenting and diffolving vegetables, is 
true permanent air ; which is certain, by its continuing 
in the fame expanded and elaftic ftate for many weeks 
and months; which expanded watery vapours will not 
do, but foon condenfe when cold. . 
Upon the whole, he concludes, that air abounds in 
vegetable fubftances, and bears a confiderable part in 
them : and if all the parts of matter were only en- 
dowed with a ftrongly attracting power, all nature 
would then immediately become one un active co- 
hering lump. 
Wherefore it was abfolutely necefiary, in order to the 
situating this vaft mafs of attracting matter, that there 
iliould he every where mixed with it a due proportion 
■ of ftrongly-repelling elaftic particles, which might 
enliven the whole mals by the mediant aition between 
them and the attracting particles. 
And fmee thefe elaftic particles are continually in 
great abundance reduced by the power of the ftrong 
attracters, from an elaftic to a fixed ftate, it was there- 
fore necefiary that thefe particles fhould be endued 
with a property of refuming their elaftic ftate, when- 
ever they were clifengaged from that mafs in which 
they were fixed, that thereby this beautiful frame of 
things might be maintained in a continual round of 
the production and diffolution of vegetables as v. ell as 
animal bodies. 
The air is very inftrumental in the procluftion and 
growth of vegetables, both by invigorating their fe- 
veral juices, while in an elaftic adive ftate, and alfo 
by greatly contributing in a fixed ftate, to the union 
and firm connexion of the feveral conftituent parts of 
. thofe bodies, viz. their water, fire, fait, and earth. 
To conclude, by reafon of thofe properties of the air 
before-mentioned, it is very ferviceable to vegetables, 
in that it blows up and breaks open the clouds, 
thofe treafures of rain, which fertilize the vegetable 
kind. 
The air alfo helps to waft or difperfe thofe foggy hu- 
mid vapours which arife from the earth, and would 
otherwise ftagnate, and poifon the whole face of the 
earth. 
The air, by the affiftance of the fun, affumes and 
fublimates thofe vapours into the upper regions ; and 
■ thefe foggy humid vapours are, by this fublimation, 
- and the coercive power of the air and fun, rarefied 
and made of fecond ufe in vegetation. 
• And on the contrary, to the benign quality of the air, 
which is fo many ways fUbfervient to vegetables, it 
is alfo fometimes, and upon fome accounts, injurious 
■ -and pernicious to them ; not only to the ligneous, 
herbaceous, and flowery parts above, but alfo to the 
■- roots- and fibres below : for in that the air penetrates 
7 
into the earth, it is eafy to be concluded; that a dry, 
hufky, fcorching air, may be very prejudicial to the 
tender fibres of new planted trees-. 
It may be likewife fuppofed, that all bodies of earth 
are more or lefs capable of imbibing the fluid air, and 
of attracting fuch fa-lts as either the ai-r can give, or 
the earth is capable of receiving. 
A I Z O O N. Sempervive. 
This name Dr. Linnaeus has given to a plant near of 
kin to the Fieoides, which has been called Ficoidea, 
by fome modern betanifts. 
The Chabwcters are, 
It hath a permanent empalement of one leaf which is cut 
into five acute Segments at the top : there are no petals in 
the flower , but the five-cornered germen refits on the em- 
p dement , fupporting five fifes , which are crowned with 
fimple- fiigma \ thefe are attended by many hairy ftaniina, 
which are inf cried into the mp dement, and are crowned 
with fimple fummits . The germen afterward becomes a 
[welling five-cornered capfuls , having five cells , in which 
are lodged many roundijh feeds. 
This genus of plants is by Dr. Linnaeus ranged in 
the fifth divifion of his twelfth clafs, entitled Icofandria 
Pentagynia, the flowers of this clafs having more than 
nineteen ftamina, and in this divifion they have five 
llyles. 
The Species are, 
1. Aizoon ( Canarienfis ) foliis cuneiformi-ovatis fioribus 
feflilibus. Flort. Upfal. 127. Sempervive with oval 
wedge-fihaped leaves , and flowers without f 00 t-ftalks. Fi- 
coidea procumbens portulacte folio. Nifibl. Ad. Par. 
1 7 1 1 . 
2. Aizoon ( Hifpanicum ) foliis lanceolatis fioribus feftiii- 
bus. Lin. Sp. Plant. 488. Sempervive with fipear- 
Jhaped leaves and flowers, having no foot-folks. Ficoidea 
Hifpanica annua folio longiore. Hort. Elth. 143. 
3. Aizoon fiP amculatum) foliis lanceolatis fioribus pani- 
culatis. Lin. Sp. PI. 448. Sempervive with [pear -fib aped, 
leaves and flowers growing in panicles. Aizoon foliis 
lanceolatis fubtus hirfutis. Prod. Leyd. 221. 
As we have no Englifh names for thefe plants, fo I 
have adopted this of Sempervive, which hath been 
applied to the Aloe and Sedum, both which have 
been alfo titled Aizoon and Sempervivum. 
The firft fort is a native of the Canary I Hands : this 
is an annual plant, which mult be railed on a mode- 
rate hot-bed in the fpring ; and when the plants are 
fit to tranfplant, they fhould be carefully taken up, 
and planted each into a fmall pot filled with frefti light 
earth, and plunged into another moderate hot-bed, 
obferving to fhade them from the fun until they have 
taken freih root ; after which they muft be hardened 
by degrees to bear the open air, into which they 
fhould be removed in June, placing them in a ihel-' 
tered fit nation, where they will flower, and ripen their 
feeds in September, foon after which the plants will 
perifh. 
The fecond fort grows naturally in Spain •, this is alfo 
an annual plant, v/fiofe branches trail on the ground; 
the flowers have no beauty, fo thefe plants are only 
preferved by thofe who are curious in collecting rare 
plants for the lake of variety. 
The third fort grows naturally at the Cape of Good 
Hope, from whence the feeds were brought to Europe. 
This is alfo of humble growth, and perifhes foon after 
the feeds are ripe. 
Thefe may be propagated in the fame manner as the 
firft, and when the plants have acquired ftrength, they 
may be planted in the full ground ; but they require 
a poor Tandy foil, for in rich ground they will grow 
very luxuriant in branches, but will not flower till late 
in the feafon, fo rarely perfect their feeds ; but when 
they are planted in dry fand, or lime rubbifh, they 
Will be more produdive of flowers, and lefs vigorous 
in their branches. 
ALA is the hollow of a ftalk, which either the leaf, 
or the pedicle of. the leaf, makes with the ftalk or 
branches ; or it is that hollow firms placed between 
the ftalk or branch and leaf, from whence a new off- 
fpringris wont to put forth, which the French call, 
Jljfielles 
