AGE 
AGENDA, / among philofophers and divines, figni- 
fies the duties which a man lies under an obligation to per¬ 
form; thus we meet with the agenda of a Chriftian, or 
the duties he ought to perform; in oppofition to the creden- 
da, or things he is to believe. 
Agenda, among merchants, a term fometimfes ufed for 
a memorandum-book, in which is fet down all the buli- 
nefs to be tranfaCted during the day, either at home or 
abroad. 
Agenda, among ecclefiaftical writers, denotes the fer- 
vice or office of the church. We meet with agenda ma- 
tutina & vejpcrtina, “ morning and evening prayers agen¬ 
da did , “ the office of the day,” whether feaft or fall: day; 
agenda mortuorum, called alfo fimply agenda, “ the fervice 
of the dead.” 
Agenda, is alfo applied to certain church-books, com¬ 
piled by public authority, prefcribing the orderand man¬ 
ner to be obferved by the minifters and people in the prin¬ 
cipal ceremonies and devotions of the church. In which 
1'enfe agenda amounts to the fame with what is otherwife 
called ritual, liturgy, aca/outhia, ntijfal, formulary, diretto- 
ry, &3c. 
AGENHINE, in our old writers, fignifies a gueft that 
has lodged at an inn for three nights, after which time lie 
was accounted one of the family ; and, if he offended the 
king’s peace, his hoff was anfwerable for him. It is alfo 
written HOGENHiNEand hogenhyne. 
AGENORIA, in mythology, the goddefs of courage 
and indudry, as Vacuna was of indolence. 
AGENT, adj. [agens, Lat.] That which acts; oppofed 
to patient, or that which is aided upon. 
Agent,/ An actor: he that aits; he that poffeffes 
the faculty of aCtion. A fubftitute; a deputy; a faCtor; 
a perfon employed to t ran fact the bufinefs of another. 
That which has the power of operating, or producing ef¬ 
fects upon another thing: 
Heav’n made us agents free to good or ill, 
And forc’d it not, though he forefaw the will. 
Freedom was firft bellow’d on human race. 
And prefcience only held the fecond place. Dryden. 
Agentes in rebus, one of the ranks of officers in 
the court of the Conllanti nopolitan emperors,whofebulinefs 
was that of a courier and meffenger, and alfo of a gene¬ 
ral infpeCtor or comptroller of the provinces. In cafe of 
plots or dillurbances, he was to give early notice thereof 
to the emperor. 
.The agentes in rebus are by fome made fynonymous with 
our poftmafters, but their functions were of greater ex¬ 
tent. They correfpond to what the Greeks call wpotpopoi^ 
and the Latins veredarii. There were various degrees of 
them ; as, tribuni, primicerii, fenatores, ducenarii, biarchi, 
circuitores, equites, tyrones, &c. 
AGE PRAYER, f. in law, is, where an aCtion is 
brought againlt a perfon under age, for lands which he 
hath by defeent, and he by petition or motion ffiews the 
matter to the court, and prays that the adtion may flay 
till his full age. See Parol demurrer. 
AGER,/ in Roman antiquity, a certain portion of land 
allowed to each citizen. See Agrarian Law. 
AGER P 1 CENUS, or Picenum, a territory of Italy 
to the fouth-eall of Umbria, reaching from tire Apen- 
nine to the Adriatic. The people are called Picentes, 
dillindl from the Picentini on the Tufcan Sea, though call¬ 
ed by Greek writers llmdhyoi. This name is faid to be 
from the bird Picus, under whofe condudl they removed 
from the Sabines, of whom they were a colony. 
AGERATUM,/ [a,ynpdlou, from « and yn pa;, never 
old, evergreen.] In botany, a genus of the fyngenefiapo- 
lygamia sequalis clafs, in the natural order of compolitae 
difeoideae. The generic charadters are—Calyx: common 
oblong, with many lanceolate fub-equal Rales. Corolla: 
■compound uniform; corollets hermaphrodite, tubulous, 
numerous, equal, fcarcely longer than the calyx; proper 
monopetalous, funnel-Ihaped; border quadrifid fpreading.,. 
Vol. I. No. 13. 
AGE 157 
Stamina: filaments capillary, very fhort; antherse cylin- 
dric, tubular. Piftillum: germ oblong; ftyle filiform, 
the length of ftamens; (ligmas two, very flender, eredt. 
Pericarpium: none; calyx unchanged. Seed: folitary, 
oblong, angular, crowned with a chaffy, five-leaved, up¬ 
right, avvried, calycle. Receptaculum: naked, convex, 
very fmall.- EJJ'ential Char abler. Receptaculum naked, 
down five-awned, calyx oblong fub-equal, corollets qua¬ 
drifid. 
Species. 1. Ageratum conyzoides, or hairy ageratum: 
leaves ovate, ftem hairy. The leaves are an inch and a 
half long, and three quarters of au inch broad, refem- 
bling thole of nettles. It flowers in July and Auguft, 
and is a native of Africa, the illands of America, and the 
ille of Tanna in t]ie Soutli Seas. Cultivated in 1714, by 
the Duchefs of Beaufort. 
2. Ageratum ciliare: leaves ovate, crenate, obtufe; 
ftem fmooth. This fpecies is faid to be found wild at I,a 
Vera Cruz, by Dr. William Houftoun ; and does not feem 
to differ in any thing from the rirft fort. 
Propagation and Culture. The feeds mud be fown on a 
hot-bed in the fpring; when the plants are ftrong enough 
to remove, they lliould be tranfplanted into another mo¬ 
derate hot-bed, obferving to water and ffiade them until 
they have taken root, after which time they muff have a 
good fliare of air in warm weather. In June they Ihould 
be inured to the open air; and toward the middle of the 
month they may be tranfplanted into the full ground, 
where they will begin to flower in July, and continue 
flowering till the frofts in autumn deitroy them. The 
feeds ripen in September and October ; and when any of 
them fcatter upon the ground, if the fame earth happens 
to be put on a hot-bed the following fpring, the plants 
will come up in great plenty; as they frequently do alfo 
in the open air, but thefe will be too late to produce good 
feeds, uniefs the fummer prove warm. 
Ageratum,/ in botany. See Achillea, Atha- 
nasia, Conyza, Erinus, Eupatorium’, and Sene- 
cio. 
AGESILAUS, king of the Lacedaemonians, the fon.of 
Archidamus, was railed to the throne notwithftaiiding the 
fuperior claim of Leotychides. As foon as he came to 
the crown, he advifed the Lacedaemonians to be before¬ 
hand with the king of Perlia, who was making great pre¬ 
parations for war, and to attack him in his own domini¬ 
ons. He was himfelf cholen for this expedition; and 
gained fo many-qdvantages over the enemy, that, if the 
league which the Athenians and Thebans formed againlt the 
Lacedaemonians had not obliged him to return home, he 
would have carried his victorious arms into the very heart 
of the Perlian empire. He gave up, however, all thefe 
triumphs readily, to come to the fuccouy of his country, 
which he happily relieved by his victory over the allies in 
Bceotia. He obtained another near Corinth; but, to his? 
great mortification, the Thebans afterward gained fevcral 
over the Lacedaemonians. Thefe misfortunes at Hr ft railed 
fomewhat of a clamour againlt him. He had been fide 
during the firlt advantages which the enemy gained; but, 
as loon as he was able to aCt in perfon, by his valour and 
prudence he prevented the Thebans from reaping the.ad- 
vantages of their victories; infomuch, that it was gene¬ 
rally believed, had he been in health at the beginning, the 
Lacedaemonians would have fuitained no Ioffes, and that 
all would have been loft had it not been for his afliltance. 
It cannot be denied that he loved war more than the inte- 
relt of his country required; for, if he could have lived 
in peace, he had faved the Lacedaemonians feveral Ioffes, 
and they would not have been engaged in many enterpri- 
fes which in the end contributed much to weaken their 
power. He died in the third year of the 104th Olympiad, 
being the 84th year of his age, and 41ft year of his reign. 
Agqfilaus would never fuffer any picture or fculpture to 
be made of him, and prohibited it alfo by his will : this he 
is fuppofed to have done from a confcioufnefs of his own 
deformity ; for he was of a Ihora ftature, and lame of one 
3 E' foot, 
