ARA 
and consists of three petals ; and its fruit is 
an oblong unilocular pod, contracted in the 
middle, and containing two oblong, obtuse, 
dud gibbous seeds. There is but one species, 
found in the Indies, a tree, stem herba- 
ceous, hairy, procumbent. The branches 
trail on the ground, and the germ, after 
flowering, thrusts itself under ground, where 
the food is formed and ripened. 
, ARACHNOIDES, in zoology, a name 
given to those echini marini, or sea-hedge- 
hogs, which are of a circular form, but 
variously indented at the edges. See 
Echinus. 
ASALIA, berry-bearing angelica , in bo- 
tany, a genus of the Pentandria Pentagynia 
class of plants, the flowers of which are col- 
lected into an umbel, of a globose figure, 
with a very small invoiucrum ; the perian- 
thium is very small, divided into five parts, 
and placed on the g< rmen ; the corolla con- 
sists of five, ovato-acute, sessile, reflex pe- 
tals ; the fruit is a roundish, coronated, 
striated berry ; having five cells ; the seeds 
are single, hard, and oblong. There are 
/our divisions, viz. A. leaves entire; B. leaves 
lobed; C. leaves in finger dike divisions; D. 
leaves decompound, and more than decom- 
pound. In the first there are three species ; 
in the second one; in the third two ; and in 
the fourth four. 
ARANEA, in natural history, the spider, 
a genus of insects of the order Aptera. Gen. 
char, legs eight; eyes eight, sometimes six ; 
mouth furnished with two hooks, or holders ; 
feelers two, jointed, the tips of which in the 
male distinguish the sex ; abdomen terminat- 
ed by papillae, or teats, through which the 
insect draws the thread. 
One of the largest of the European spi- 
ders is the Aranea diadema of Linnaeus, 
which is extremely common in our own 
country, and is chiefly seen during the au- 
tumnal season in gardens, &c. The body 
of this species, when full grown, is not much 
inferior in size to a small hazel nut : the ab- 
domen is beautifully marked by a longitudi- 
nal series of round, or drop-shaped milk- 
white spots, crossed by others of similar 
appearance, so as to represent, in some de- 
gree, the pattern of a small diadem. This 
spider, in the months of September and 
October, forms, in some convenient spot or 
shelter, a large round close, or thick web 
of yellow silk, in which it deposits its eggs, 
guarding the round web with a secondary 
one of a looser texture. The young are 
hatched in the ensuing May, the parent in- 
jects dying towards the close of autumn. 
ARA 
The Aranea diadema being one of the 
largest of the common spiders, serves to ex- 
emplify some of the principal characters of 
the genus- in a clearer manner than most 
others; At the tip of the abdomen are 
placed five papilla; or teats, through which 
the insect draws its thread ; and as each of 
these papilla; is furnished with a vast num- 
ber of foramina or outlets, disposed over its 
whole surface, it follows that what we com- 
monly term a spider’s thread, is in reality 
formed of a collection of a great many dis- 
tinct ones ; the animal possessing the power 
of drawing out more or fewer at pleasure ; 
and if it should draw from all the foramina 
at once, the thread might consist of many 
hundred distinct filaments. The eyes, which 
are situated on the upper part or front of 
the thorax, are eight in number, placed at 
a small distance from each other, and hav- 
ing the appearance of the stemmata in the 
’generality of insects. The fangs or piercers, 
with which the animal wounds its prey, are 
strong, curved, sharp-pointed, and each fur- 
nished on the inside, near the tip, with a 
small oblong hole or sljt, through which is 
evacuated a poisonous fluid into the wound 
made by the point itself, these organs operat- 
ing in miniature on the same principle with 
the fangs in poisonous serpents. The feet 
are of a highly curious structure ; the two 
claws with which each is terminated being 
furnished on its under side with several 
parallel processes resembling the teeth of a 
comb, and enabling the animal to dispose 
and manage with the utmost facility the dis- 
position of the threads in its web, Sec. 
Aranea tarantula, or Tarantula spider, 
of which so many idle recitals have been 
detailed in the works of the learned, and 
which, even to this day, continues in 
some countries to exercise the faith and 
ignorance of the vulgar, is a native of the 
warmer parts of Italy and other warm Eu- 
ropean region's, and is generally found in 
dry and sunny plains. It is the largest of all 
the European spiders, but the extraordinary 
symptoms supposed to ensue from the bite 
of this insect, as well as their supposed cure 
by the power of music alone, are entirely 
fabulous, and are now sufficiently exploded 
among all rational philosophers. The gigan- 
tic Aranea avicularia, or Bird-catching 
spider, is not uncommon in many parts of 
tlie East Indies and South America, where 
it resides among trees ; frequently seizing 
on small birds, which it destroys by wound- 
ing with its fangs, and afterwards sucking 
their blood: during the early part of tiie 
