ALP 
quences, there is one very striking ; namely, 
that the picture after degenerating into a 
sign or character, will be associated by 
memory with the oral character, or name, 
or correspondent word. An immediate step 
after this, must be that characters asso- 
ciated with monosyllabic words will be 
frequently put together to form polysylla- 
bic words, in which the picture is left out 
of the consideration, and the sound alone 
forms the subject of the record, (as if the 
characters for man and eye were united to 
form the word many, or multitudinous.) 
And lastly, habit must in fact have given a 
preference in the composition of these po- 
lysyllabic words, to such simple sounds and 
their characters as were found to be most 
extensively useful. That is to say, an un- 
intentional process of analysis must have 
thus given rise to the alphabet. 
The sounds of language are modified by 
articulation, which depends on certain gross, 
and in general obvious changes in the figure 
of the organs ; and by accent or mere in- 
tensity ; and by intonation or music. The 
first of these, as used in discourse, is much 
more capable of having its variations marked 
by characters than the others; and from 
this circumstance it is found that the alpha- 
bet can deliver with correctness the words 
of such languages as communicate chiefly 
by articulation : but in languages where 
the same articulated monosyllable denotes 
a great variety of things according to the 
accent or intonation, there will be com- 
paratively few instances of depicted sound, 
and the system of writing will continue to 
be hieroglyphic or rather symbolic in all 
its improvements. This system is for the 
reason here mentioned in use in China, and 
does not seem inferior to the alphabet, but 
in some respects more advantageous. 
Alphabet is also used for a cypher, or 
table of the usual letters of the alphabet, 
with the corresponding secret characters, 
and other blank symbols intended to render 
the writing more difficult to be decyphered. 
See the article Decyphering. 
Alphabet, among merchants, a kind 
of index, with the twenty-four letters, in 
their natural order, in which are set down 
the names of those who have opened ac- 
counts, referring to the folios of the ledger. 
ALPHONSINE tables, astronomical ta- 
bles calculated by order of Alphonsus, King 
of Castile, in the construction of which 
that Prince is supposed to have contributed 
his own labour. 
ALPINIA, in botany, a genus of the Mo- 
ALS 
nandria Monogynia class of plants, the co- 
rolla whereof is monopetalous, unequal, and 
as it were double; the exterior one is trifid, 
the upper segment is hollow, the two side 
ones flat, and it has a tube ; the interior is 
short, its edge is trifid, and the lower seg- 
ment of the three hangs out beyond the 
lateral parts of the exterior corolla, the 
other two are emarginated, and the base is 
ventricose ; the fruit is a fleshy capsule, of 
an ovated figure, composed of three valves, 
and containing three cells; the seeds are 
numerous, of an ovated figure, with a pro- 
minent but truncated apex, and a caudated 
base. There are seven species. 
ALSINE, chick-weed, in botany, a genus 
of the Pentandria Trigynia class and order, 
and of the_natural order of Caryophyllei : 
its characters are, that the calyx is a five- 
leaved perianthium, leaflets concave, ob- 
long and acuminate ; the corolla has five 
equal petals, longer than the calyx ; the 
stamina consist of capillary filaments, the 
anthers roundish ; the pistilium has a subo- 
vate germ, styles filiform, and stigmas ob- 
tuse ; the pericarpium is an ovate, one-cel- 
led, three-valved capsule, covered with the 
calyx ; the seeds are very many and round- 
ish. There are five species, of which the 
following is the principal. A. media, com- 
mon chick-weed, with petals bipartite, and 
leaves ovate cordate. The number of sta- 
mens in the flower of the common chick- 
weed is uncertain, from three to ten. This 
species in different soils and situations as- 
sumes different appearances ; but it is dis- 
tinguished from the cerastiums, which it 
most resembles, by the number of pistils, 
and by having the petals shorter than the 
leaves of the calyx, and from all the plants 
related to it, and particularly the steliaria 
nemorum, by having the stalk alternately 
hairy on one side only. Dr. Withering re- 
fers it to the steliaria, with which genus it 
agrees in various respects, and especially in 
the capsules opening with six valves. He 
observes, that it grows almost in all situa- 
tions from damp and almost boggy woods, 
to the driest gravel walks in gardens ; but 
in these various states its appearances are 
very different, so that those who have only 
taken notice of it as garden chicken-weed 
would hardly know it in woods, where it 
sometimes exceeds half a yard in height, 
and has leaves near two inches long, and 
more than one inch broad. In its truly 
wild state, he says, in damp woods, and 
hedge bottoms with a northern aspect, it 
has almost always ten stamens; but in drier 
