the maple-leaved abrcma, which is a tree 
with a straight trunk, yielding a gain when 
cut, and filled with a white pith like the 
elder; it flowers from June to October, and 
its fruit ripens in September and October ; 
it is a native of New South Wales and the 
Philippine islands, was introduced into Kew 
gardens about 1770, and is a liot-house 
plant, requiring great heat, and much wa- 
ter: — and Wheler’s Abroma, so called by 
Koenig, in compliment to Edward Wheler, 
Esq. of the Supreme Council in Bengal ; 
tlxis is a shrub with a brown bark, a native 
of the East Indies, and is not known in 
Europe. There is but one of the species 
known in Europe, which is propagated with 
us by cuttings. The plant requires a strong 
heat, and abundance of Water. The seeds 
rarely arrive at a state fit for propagation. 
ABRUS, in botany, from a Greek word 
•ignifying soft or delicate, so called from the 
extreme tenderness of the leaves, is a genus 
of the natural order of Leguminosae, and 
the seventeenth class of Diadelphia Decan- 
dria. There is one species, viz. the Abrus 
precatorius. It grows naturally in both 
Indies, Guinea, and Egypt, It is a peren- 
nial plant, rising to the height of eight or ten 
feet. Its leaflets have the taste of liquorice, 
whence it is called, in the West Indies, 
Jamaica wild liquorice, and used for the same 
purpose. There are two varieties, one with 
a white, and the other with a yellow seed. 
The seeds are commonly strung, and worn 
as ornaments in the countries where the 
plant grows wild ; and they are frequently 
brought to Europe from Guinea, and the 
East and West Indies, and wrought into va- 
rious forms with other hard seeds and shells. 
They are also used for weighing precious 
commodities, and strung as beads for ro- 
saries, whence the epithet precatorius. 
They are frequently thrown, with other 
West Indian seeds, on the coast of Scotland. 
This plant was cultivated by Bishop Comp- 
ton, at Fulham, before 1680. It is propa- 
gated by seeds, sown on a good hot-bed in 
spring, and previously soaked for twelve or 
fourteen hours in water. When the plants 
are two inches, each of them should be 
transplanted into a separate pot of light 
earth, and plunged into hot-beds of tanner’s 
bark, and shaded from the sun. They will 
flower the second year, and sometimes ripen 
their seeds in England. 
ABSCESS, in medicine and surgery, an 
inflammatory tumour, containing purulent 
matter. See Surgery. 
ABSCISSE, in conic sections, the part 
of the diameter of a curve liue, intercepted 
between the' vertex of that diameter and 
the point where any ordinate or semi-ordi- 
nate to that diameter falls. From this de- 
finition it is evident, that there are an infi- 
nite number of variable abscisses in the 
same curve, as well as an infinite number of 
ordinates. 
In tiie parabola, one ordinate has but one 
abscisse ; in an ellipsis, it has two ; in an 
hyperbola, consisting of two parts, it has 
also two ; and in curves of the second and 
third order, it may have three and four. 
See Conic Sections. 
ABSCISSION, in rhetoric, a figure of 
speech, whereby the speaker stops short in 
the middle of his discourse : e. g. one of her 
age and beauty, to be seen alone, at such an 
hour, with a man of his character. I need 
say no more. 
ABSINTHIUM. See Artemisia. 
ABSORBENTS, in the materia medica, 
such medicines as have the power of drying 
up redundant humours, whether applied to 
ulcers, or taken inwardly. See Materia 
Medica, and Pharmacy. 
Absorbent vessels, in anatomy, are those 
which take up any fluid from the surface of 
the body, or of any cavity in it, and c.arry 
it into the blood. They are denominated 
according to the liquids which they convey, 
as Lacteals, or Lymphatics; the former con- 
veying chyle, a milky fluid, from the intes- 
tines, the latter lymph, a thin pellucid liquor, 
from the places whence they take their 
origin. The lymphatics also take up any 
fluids that are extravasated, and likewise 
substances nibbed on the skin, as mercury, 
and convey them into the circulation. 
ABSTRACT idea, among logicians, the 
idea of some general quality or property 
considered simply in itself, without any 
respect to a particular subject : thus, mag- 
nitude, equity, &c. are abstract ideas,. when 
we consider them as detached from any 
particular body or person. Various con- 
troversies have been maintained respecting 
the existence of abstract ideas; but all 
these disputes seem to be merely verbal. 
It is certainly impossible to possess an idea 
of an animal which shall have no precise 
colour, figure, magnitude, or the like; but 
it is an useful artifice of the understanding 
to leave these out in our general reasonings. 
Thus it is that the a, b, c, &c. of the alge- 
braists are usefully applied to denote num- 
bers, though undoubtedly they are only 
general signs.- 
ABUCCO, Abocco, or Abocchi, a 
weight used in the kingdom of Pegu. 
ABUNDANT numbers, those whose 
