30 A B R 
Native of the Eaft Indies, where it was obferved by Koe¬ 
nig, who gave ic the trivial name in compliment to Edw. 
Wheeler, Efq. member of the fupreme council in Bengal. 
Propagation and Culture. 'I he firfl fort requires the pro¬ 
tection of a hot-houfe; arid is propagated here by cuttings ; 
the feeds will not eafily ripen With us, and feldom arrive 
in a date fit for vegetation, unlefs great care be taken of 
them; the plant requires a ftrong heat and abundance of 
wate-r. The fecorid is not known in Europe. 
ABROTANOIDES,/. in botany. See Artemisia, 
Protea, and Seriphium. 
AB.RQTANUM,/ in botany. See Artemisia, Eri- 
ocephalus, Santolina, and Tanacetum. 
ABROTONUM, anciently a towp and harbour on the 
Medit'erranerin, in the diftriCt of Syrtis Pafva, in Africa, 
one of the three cities that went to form Tripoli. 
ABRUG-Bv\NY A; a well-inhabited town of Tranfyl- 
vania, on the river Ompay; near which there are mines 
of gold and filver, and the mine-court is held there. Lat. 
46. 50. N. Ion. 23. 24. E. 
ABRUPT, adj. [. abruptvs, Lat. broken off.] Broken, 
craggy. Divided, without any thing intervening. Sud¬ 
den, without the cuftomary or proper preparatives: 
R-efiftlefs, roaring, dreadful, down it comes 
From the rude mountain, and the molly wild, 
Tumbling through rocks abrupt. Thomjon. 
ABRUPTED, adj. [ abruptus, Lat. a word little in ufe.] 
Broken off fuddenly. 
ABRUPTION,A [abruptio, Lat.] Breaking off, vio¬ 
lent and hidden reparation. • 
ABRUPTLY, adv. Haflily, without the due forms of 
preparation.—They punctually obferved the time agreed 
upon, and in whatever company or bufinefs they were en¬ 
gaged, they left it abruptly, as foon as the clock warned 
them to retire. Addifon. 
ABRUPTNESS, f. An abrupt manner, hafte, fudden- 
nef’s, untimely vehemence. The date of an abrupt or bro¬ 
ken thing; roughnefs, cragginefs; as of a fragment vio¬ 
lently disjoined. 
ABRUS, f. [«€po?, foft, delicate; from the extreme 
tendernefsof the leaves.] In botany, a genus of the dia- 
delphia decandria clafs, arid of the natural order of legu- 
minofie. The generic charaCtersare—Calyx : perianthone- 
leafed, bell-lhaped, obfeurely four-lobed; teeth blunt, the 
upper one broader than the reft. Corolla : papilionace¬ 
ous. Banner roundifh, entire, afeending, flatted at the 
Tides, longer than the wings and keel. Wings oblong, 
blunt. Keel oblong, fickle-fhaped, gibbous, longer than 
the wrings. Stamina: Filaments nine, united into a fheath, 
cloven above, free at the end, unequal, riling. Antherae 
oblong, ereCt. Piftillum : germ cylindrical, hairy. Style 
fubulate, riling fhorter than the flamina. Stigma in form 
of a head, and final!. Pericarpium: legume like a rhomb, 
comprelfed, coriaceous, bivalved, four or five celled, acu¬ 
minate, writh a little fubulate deflex claw. Seeds: foli- 
iary fubglobofe.— EJJ'ential CharaEler. Calyx: obfeurely 
fourlobed; the upper lobe broadeft. Filaments nine, 
united into a fheath at bottom, gaping at the back. Stig¬ 
ma-blunt. Seeds fubglobofe. 
There is only one fpecies which grows naturally in both 
Indies, Guinea, and Egypt. It was alfo Jxmnd by the late 
circumnavigators in the Society iflands, about the year 
2769. This is a perennial plant, with flender, fhrubby, 
twining, branching, ftalks, by which it will rife to the 
height of eight or ten feet. The leaves are pinnate, end¬ 
ing abruptly, and have from twelve to fixteen pairs of fmall, 
fmooth, oblong, blunt, leaflets, fet clofe together; thefe 
have the tafte of liquorice, whence the inhabitants of the 
Weft Indies have given it the name of wild liquorice, and 
they ufe the herb for the fame purpofe as we do the liquo¬ 
rice in Europe. The flowers are produced from the fide 
of the ftalks in fhort fpikes or bunches ; they are of a pale 
purple colour, and fliaped like thofe of the kidney-bean; 
thefe are fucceeded by fhort fmooth pods, each containing 
A B R 
three or four hard feeds, very fmooth, of a glowing fear- 
let colour, with a black fpot or eye on that fide Which is 
fattened to the pod. The legume or pod is fometimes of 
an oblong form, and contains fix feeds, fcarce apparently 
divided by a membrane, which indeed frequently difap- 
pears as the pods ripen. There are two varieties, one with 
a white, and the other with a yellow feed; but thefe do 
not differ from the former in leaf or ftalk. The feeds of 
this plant are commonly ftrung, and worn as ornaments by 
the natives of thofe countries where the plant grows wild : 
they are frequently brought to Europe from Guinea, and 
the Eaft and Weft Indies, and wrought into various forms 
with other hard feeds, and fhells. A few years lince an 
attempt was made, both at London and Paris, to introduce 
them into ear-rings and other-female ornaments, but with¬ 
out much fuccefs. This, like molt others, was only the 
revival of a fafhion which prevailed for a fhort time in 
Holland, at the latter end of the laft-century. In their 
native countries they are commonly ufed for weighing pre¬ 
cious commodities; they are alfo ftrung as beads for rofa- 
ries; whence the trivial name of precatorius. They'are 
frequently thrown, with other Weft-Indian feeds, on the 
north weft coaft of Scotland. Linnaeus affirms that they 
are extremely deleterious. Abrus was accounted a fpecies 
of glycine, until Linnaeus made it a feparate genus in the 
twelfth edition of his Syjtema Vcgetabilivm, on, account of a 
difference in its -ftature and appearance. from the other 
fpecies. The abrus was cultivated before 1680, by Bi- 
fhop Compton, at Fulham. 
Propagation and Culture. This plant is propagated by 
feeds, which mull be f'own upon a good hot-bed in the 
fpring; but, as the feeds are very hard, unlefs they are 
foaked in water twelve or fourteen hours before they are 
fown, they frequently lie in the ground a whole year before 
they vegetate; but when foaked, the plants will appear in 
a fortnight, if the feeds be good, and the bed in a proper 
temperature of heat. When the plants are two inches 
high, they fhould be tranfplanted each into a feparate pot, 
filled with light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed of tan¬ 
ner’s bark, where they fhould be fhaded from the fun un¬ 
til they have taken new root; after which they mull be 
treated in the fame manner as other tender plants from the 
fame countries, always keeping them in the bark ftove. 
They will flower the fecond year, and fometimes ripen 
their feeds in England. 
ABRUZZO, a province in Naples. The river Pef- 
cara divides it into two parts ; one of which is called Ul¬ 
terior, whereof Aquila is the capital; and the other Cite- 
rior, whofe capital is Solomona. Befides the Appenines, 
there are two confiderable mountains, the one called Monte 
Cavallo, and the other Monte Majello ; the top of which 
laft is always covered with fnow. Abruzzo is a cold coun¬ 
try ; but the rigour of the climate is not fo great as to pre¬ 
vent the country from producing in abundance every thing 
requifite for the fupport of life. Vegetables, fruits, ani¬ 
mals, and numberlefs other articles of fuftenance, not only 
furnifh ample provifion for the ufe of the natives, but alfo 
allow of exportation. There is fo large a quantity of wheat 
reaped, that many thoufands of Quarters are annually fnip- 
ped oft'. Much Turkey wheat is fent out, and the province 
Teramo fells a great deal of rice little inferior in goodnefs 
to that of Lombardy. Oil is a plentiful commodity, and 
wines are made for exportation on many parts of the coaft; 
but wool has always been, and ftill is, their ftaple commo¬ 
dity: the flocks, after palling the fummer in the fine paf- 
turesof the mountains, are driven for the winter into the 
warm plains of Puglia, and a fevC fpots near their own coaft, 
where the fnow does not lie; there are no manufactures of 
woollens in the province, except two fmall ones of coarfe 
cloth, andthegreateftpartof thewoolisfentout unwrought.. 
No filk is made here, though mulbCrry-trees would grow 
well on the low grounds. 
The antiquary and the naturalift may travel here with 
exquifite pleafure and profit; the former will find treafures 
of inferiptions, and inedited monuments appertaining to 
the 
