4S4 A T R 
the roots with Tome old tanners bark, to prevent the froft 
from penetrating the ground. I he other torts are yet 
itrangers to the European gardens ; and, whenever they 
are introduced, will require the protection of a greenhoufe 
or ftove. See Garth amus. 
ATR A'GENE, /; In botany, a genus of the clafs po- 
lyandria, order polygynia, natural order of nuiltililiquae. 
'1 lie generic characters’ are—Calyx : perianth tour-leaved, 
leaflets oval, fpreading, obtufe, deciduous. Corolla -, pe¬ 
tals twelve (in atragene Capenfis about twenty) linear, 
very narrow at the bafe, obtufe, fpreading. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments very many, very Ihort; anthers? oblong, acuminate, 
flmrter than the calyx. Piltillum : germs very many, ob¬ 
long; ttyles villofe, perntament; ftigfna fimple, the length 
of the antherae. Pericarpium: none. Seeds: very many, 
ending in a hairy tail.— EJential Character. Calyx four¬ 
leaved ; petals twelve ; feeds tailed. 
Species. i. Atragene japonica, or Japonefe atragene: 
erect, leaves oppofite triternate, leaflets ovate gaflied. 
Stem angular and (treaked, two feet high. Leaves peti- 
oled, fpreading : petals more than twenty, nearly equal, 
or the inner ones a little fliorter, ovate, bluntifh, purple 
within, white-tocnentofe without. It has all the appear¬ 
ance of anemone, but it is referred to this genus on account 
of the number of petals. Native of Japan. 
2. Atragene alpina, or alpine atragene: leaves doubly- 
ternate ferrate, outer petals four-fold. Stems (lender, 
weak, the lower part woody ; the bark brown and thin ; 
Haller deferibes the ftem as very fliort, two-leaved and 
one-flow'ered. Native of the high Alps of Switzerland. 
Remarked on mont Baldo by Pono, on mont Cenis, &c. 
by Allioni, on the mountains of Aufiria by Jacquii), and 
in Siberia by Gmelin. According to Jacquin, it flowers 
in June, and the feeds ripen in Augufl. Miller fays that 
the flowers appear in March and April with us. He in¬ 
forms us that Gmelin fent the feeds to Peterfburgh, and 
that in 1753 he was favoured with fome of them fiom 
thence ; that they fucceeded at Chelfea, and that the 
plants flowered many years there, but without perfecting 
their feeds. 
3. Atragene capenfis, or Cape atragene : leaves ternate, 
leaflets gafhed toothed, outer petals five-fold. 4. Atragene 
tenuifolia, or fine-leaved atragene: leaves doubly-pinnate, 
pinnules linear entire. Natives of the Cape of Good Hope. 
5. Atragene zeylanica, or Ceylonefe atragene : tendrils 
two-leaved. Native of the ifland of Ceylon. 
Propagation and Culture. The fecond fort may be increafed 
by cuttings or layers, in the fame manner as clematis. In 
a firong foil, and trained againft a wall, it will rife to the 
height of fix or eight feet. The flowers appear early, and, 
jf the feafon prove favourable, they make a handfome fi¬ 
gure : but, as this plant is apt to put out leaves very early 
in the fpring, it is frequently nipped by the frofts, as are 
many plants and trees of Siberia and Tartary. The others 
have not yet been cultivated in England. _ . 
ATR AMEN'T A L, adj. [from atr amentum, Lat. ink.] 
Inky ; black.—If we enquire in what part of vitriol this 
atramental and denigrating condition lodgeth, it will leem 
efpecially to lie in the more fixed fait thereof. Brown. 
ATRAMEN'TOUS, adj. Inky ; black .—1 am not fa- 
tisfied, that tliofe black and atramentous fpots, which feem 
to reprefent them, are ocular. Brown. 
ATRAPHAX'IS,/. j>Tpa<p«fi?, to afyow? ccy^ 
from its coming up quickly from feed, viz. on the eighth 
day.] In botany, a genus of the clafs hexandria, order 
digynia, natural order holoraceie. The generic characters 
are—Calyx : perianthium two-leaved ; leaflets oppofite, 
lanceolate, coloured, permanent. Corolla : petals two, 
roundilh, finuate, larger than the calyx, permanent. Sta¬ 
mina : filaments fix, capillary, the length of the calyx ; 
antherse roundifli. Piftillilnf: germ comprefled ; flyle 
none ; ftigmas two capitate. Pericarpium : none ; calyx 
clofed, including the feed. Seed: one, roundifh, com- 
preffed. —EJfential Character. Calyx two-leaved ; petals 
two finuate ; ftigmas capitate; feed one. 
ATR 
Species, t. Atraphaxis fpinofa, or prickly-branched 
atraphaxis : branches fpiny. This fhrub riles four or five 
feet high, lending out many weak lateral branches, armed 
with fpines, and garnifhed with fmall, fpear-fhaped, fmooth 
leaves, of an afh-colour. The flowers come out at the 
ends of the (hoots in clutters, each confiding of two white 
petals tinged with purple, included in a two-leaved calyx, 
of a white herbaceous colour. They appear in Augufl. 
Native of Armenia, Siberia, and Perlia. Cultivated by 
Miller, in 1759. 
2. Atraphaxis undulata, or waved-leaved atraphaxis: 
without fpines. The fecond fort fends out many flender 
branches , trailing on the ground ; leaves fmall, oval, a- 
bout the lize of thole of knot-grafs, waved and curled on 
their edges, embracing the ftalk half round at their bafe, 
and placed alternate. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Propagation and Culture. The feeds of thefe plants not 
ripening in England, they are propagated by cuttings, du¬ 
ring any of the fummer-months. In winter they muft be 
fereened from hard froft, which commonly deltroys fuch 
as are planted in the open air. 
ATREBA'TII, one of thofe Belgic colonies which 
came out of Gaul into Britain, and there retained their an¬ 
cient name. They originally inhabited the country which 
is now called Artois, and are mentioned by Caefar among 
the nations which compofed the Belgic confederacy againft 
him. Calliva Atrebatum, mentioned in the 7th, 12th, 
13th, and 14th, Itinera of Antoninus, and called by Pto¬ 
lemy Calcua, Teems to have been the capital of the Atre- 
batii; though our antiquaries differ in their fentiments 
about the fituation of this ancient city, fome placing it at 
Wallingford, and others at Ilchelter. 
ATRE'MIA,y. [arjEjuta, from argEfisa.', to reft.] Reft, 
freedom from pain. 
ATRE'SIA,y! [xrgno-nz, frorfi a neg. and tit^sew, to 
perforate.] Imperforation. A difeafe where the anus or 
genitals have not their ufual orifices. 
A'TREUS, in fabulus hiftory, the fon of Pelops and 
Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Mene- 
laus, is fuppofed to have been king of Mycenae and Argos 
about 1228 years before the Chriftian era. He drove his 
brother Thyeftes from court, for having a criminal com¬ 
merce with -iTirope his wife : but, underftanding that he 
had had two children by her, he fent for him again, and, 
inviting him to a feaft, made him eat them ; at which hor¬ 
rid action, the fun, it is feigned by the poets, withdrew 
his light. 
A'TRI, a town of Italy, in the farther Abruzzo, in the 
kingdom of Naples, with the title of a duchy ; it is the 
fee of a bifliop, and is feated on a craggy mountain, four 
miles from the Adriatic fea. N. lat. 42. 45. E. Ion. 13.8. 
ATRI'BA, a town of Egypt: five miles north-weft of 
Achmim. 
A'TRICES,/ [arpixE?, from a. priv. and 0 gi|, hair.] 
Small tubercles about the anus upon which hairs will not 
grow. 
ATRI'DES, a name given by Homer to Agamemnon, 
and Menelaus, as fons of Atreus; but Hefiod and others 
fay, that his fon Plifthenes was their father, and that thefe 
princes were brought up under the eye of their grandfather. 
ATRIEN'SES,/! In antiquity, a kind of fervants or 
officers in the great families at Rome, who had the care 
and infpeCtion of the atria, and the things lodged therein. 
Thefe are otherwife called atriarii, though fome make a 
diftinCtion between atrienfes and atriarii ; fuggefting that 
the latter were an inferior order of fervants. The atri¬ 
enfes are reprefnted as fervants of authority and command 
over the reft : they afted as procurators, or agents, of 
their matter, in felling his goods. To their care were com¬ 
mitted the ftatues and images of their matter's anceftors. 
See. which were placed round the atrium; and which they 
carried in proceflion at funerals. In the villas or country- 
houfes, the atrienfes had the care of the other furniture 
and utenfils, particularly thole of metal. They were 
clothed 
