ANG 
(*nt anemoscope is described in the Phil. 
Trans, vol. xliii. part ii. and one is describ- 
ed in Martin’s Phil. Brit. vol. ii. 
; ANETHUM, in botany, dill, a genus of 
the Pentandria Digynia class and order. 
Essen, char, fruit ovate, somewhat compres- 
sed, striate : petals involute, entire. There 
are three species. The common dill differs 
from fennel, in having an annual root, a 
smaller and lower stem ; the leaves more 
glaucous, and of a less pleasant smell ; the 
seeds broader and flatter. This plant grows 
wild among the corn in Spain and Portugal, 
and also near the coast in Italy, and near 
Constantinople : it is an annual, and has been 
cultivated here more than 200 years. The 
seeds are directed for use by the London 
and Edinburgh Pharmacopeias. Common 
fennel, another species of anethum, is much 
used for culinary purposes, and likewise in 
medicine. 
ANEURISM, or Aneurysm, in surgery, 
a throbbing tumour, distended with blood, 
and formed by a dilatation or rupture of an 
artery. 
ANGEL, in commerce, the name of an 
ancient gold coin in England, of which 
some are still to be seen in the cabinets of 
the curious. It had its name from the 
figure of an angel represented upon it. It 
was 23 | carats fine, and weighed four pen- 
ny-weights. Its value differed in different 
reigns. 
ANGELICA, in botany, a genus of the 
Pentandria Digynia class of plants, the ge- 
neral umbel of which is roundish and multi- 
ple ; the partial umbel, while in flower, is 
perfectly globose ; the general involucrum 
is composed of either three or five leaves ; 
the partial involucrum is small, and com- 
posed of eight leaves ; the proper perian- 
thium is small, and quinquedentate ; the 
general corolla is uniform ; the single flow- 
ers consist each of five deciduous, lanceo- 
lated, and slightly crooked petals ; the fruit 
is naked, roundish, angular, and separable 
into two parts : the seeds are two, of an 
oval figure, plain on one side, and convex 
or striated on the other. 
All the sorts may be increased by seeds. 
The common angelica delights in a moist 
soil, in which the seeds should be sown 
soon after they are ripe ; and when the 
plants are about six inches high, they should 
be transplanted at a large distance, about 
three feet asunder, on the sides of ditches 
or pools of water. In the second year they 
will flower, and their stems may be cut 
down in May, and heads will be put out 
ANG 
from the sides of the roots, and thus they 
may be continued for three or four years ; 
but if they had been permitted to seed, 
their roots would perish' soon after. — 
The stalks of garden angelica were for- 
merly blanched, and eaten as celery . The 
young shoots are in great esteem among 
the Laplanders. In Norway, bread is some- 
times made of the roots. The gardeners 
near London, who have ditches of water in 
their gardens, propagate great quantities of 
this plant, which they sell to the confec- 
tioners, who make a sweet-meat with the 
tendor stalks cut in May. Bohemia and 
Spain are supposed to produce the best ; 
the College of London, formerly directed 
the roots brought from Spain only to be 
kept in the shops. Linnaeus, however, 
assures us, that the plant proves most vigo- 
rous on its native northern mountains, and 
gives a decided preference to the root dug 
here, either early in the spring, or late in 
the autumn. The roots of angelica are one 
of the principal aromatics of European 
growth, though not much regarded in the 
present practice. They have a fragrant 
agreeable smell, and a bitterish pungent 
taste ; on being chewed they are first sweet- 
ish, afterwards acrid, and leave a glowing 
heat in the mouth and fauces, which conti- 
nue for some time. The stalk, leaves, and 
seeds, appear to possess the same qualities, 
though in an inferior degree. Dr. Lewis 
says, that on wounding the fresh root early 
in the spring, it yields, from the inner part 
of the bark, an unctuous, yellowish, odorous 
juice, which, gently exsiccated, retains its 
fragrance, and proves an elegant, aromatic, 
gummy, resin. Rectified spirit extracts the 
whole of the virtues of the root ; water but 
very little ; and, in distillation with the lat- 
ter, a small portion of very pungent essen- 
tial oil may be obtained. The Laplanders 
extol the utility of angelica, not only as food 
but as medicine. For coughs, hoarseness, 
and other disorders of the breast, they eat 
the stalks, roasted in hot ashes ; they also 
boil the tender flowers in daily milk, till it 
attains the consistence of an extract ; and 
they use this to promote perspiration in ca- 
tarrhal fevers, and to strengthen the stomach 
in diarrhaea, &c. According to the expla- 
nations of Sir John Pringle, the herb is an- 
tiseptic, but the efficacy of the leaves is soon 
lost by drying them. The seeds also, which 
come nearest to the roots, can scarce be 
kept till the spring after they are gathered, 
without the loss of their vegetative power, 
as well as a diminution of their medicinal 
