<jj86 A T R 
weighing it down to the ground. Native of Europe, in 
wade places, on ditch-banks, and in cultivated grounds ; 
flowering in Auguft. 
11. Atriplex littoralis, or grafs-leaved fea orach: (lem 
herbaceous, eretSt; all the leaves linear, quite entire. Root 
annual Stems numerous, at firft trailing, afterwards de¬ 
clining or upright, much branched. Native of Europe, 
on the fea-coaft, flowering in Auguft: at Ramfgate, in 
Kent; Yarmouth, Blakeney, and Wells, in Norfolk. 
12. Atriplex pedunculata, or peduncled orach: (lem 
herbaceous, divaricated ; leaves lanceolate, obtufe, entire; 
calyxes of the female flowers peduncled. Stem much 
branched. Native of the fea fhores of Denmark and Eng¬ 
land ; as near Boflon; in the ifle of Thanet; near Yar¬ 
mouth, Lynn, See. It flowers from July to September. 
13. Atriplex marina, or ferrated fea orach : Hem her¬ 
baceous, erect; leaves linear, ferrate. This is an annual 
plant. Native of Sweden and England, on fea fhores and 
in wade places ; flowering in Auguft. 
14. Atriplex albicans, or white orach: ftem flirubby, 
eredl; leaves haftate, quite entire, acute ; fpikes termi¬ 
nating. Native of the Cape of Good Hope, where it was 
found by Mr. Francis Malfon. It was introduced here in 
1774; and flowers in June and July. 
Propagation and Culture. The three firft forts may be 
Increafed by cuttings, planted in any of the fummer months 
on a fhady border ; where, if they be duly watered, they 
will foon take root, and be fit to tranfplant the Michael¬ 
mas following ; when they Ihould be planted where they 
are to remain, for they do not fucceed well in tranfplant- 
ing, efpecially when they are grown large and woody. The 
feventh muft be fown for life early in the fpring, or at 
Michaelmas, loon after the feeds are ripe ; at which time 
it generally fucceeds better than when it is fown in the 
fpring, and will be fit for ufe at lead a month earlier. 
Thefe plants require no other culture but to hoe them 
when they are about an inch high, to cut them down 
where they are too thick, leaving them about four inches 
afunder, and to cut down all the weeds. This muft be 
done in dry weather, otherwife the weeds will take root 
again, and render the work of little or no ufe. When the 
plants are grown about four inches high, it will be proper 
to hoe them a fecond time, in order to clear them from 
weeds ; and, if you obferve the plants are left too clofe in 
any part, they Ihould then be cut out. If this’be well per¬ 
formed, and in dry weather, the ground will remain clean 
until the plant is fit for ufe. Where it is fown on a rich 
foil, and the plants are allowed a proper difla-nce, the 
leaves w ill be very large, and in that the excellence of the 
herb confifts. It muft be eaten when young, for, when the 
ftalks become tough, it is good for nothing. The feeds 
will ripen in Auguft, when the plants may be cut or pulled 
up, and laid on a cloth to dry ; after which the feeds may 
be beaten out, and laid up in bags for ufe. Mod of the 
other forts, fo far from being cultivated in gardens, are to 
be rooted out of them with care, as rank weeds. See 
Atraphaxis, Axyris, Blitum, Chenofodium, and 
GA LENIA. 
A'TRIUM,/! in ecclefiaftical antiquity, denotes an open 
place or court before a church, making part of what was 
called the nai ihex or ante-temple. The atrium in the an¬ 
cient churches was a large area or fquare plot of ground, 
furrounded with a portico or cloifter, fituate between the 
porch or veftibule of the church and the body of the 
church. Some have miftakenly confounded the atrium 
with the porch or veftibule, from which it was diftindl ; 
ethers with the narthex, of which it was only a part. The 
atrium w>as the manfion of thofe who were not fuffered to 
enter farther into the church. More particularly, it was 
the place where the firft clafs of penitents flood to beg the 
prayers of the faithful as they went into the church. 
Atrium is alfo ufed in the canon-law, for the ceme¬ 
tery or church-yard. In this fenfe we find a law prohi¬ 
biting buildings to be raifed in atrio ecclefioe, except for the 
clergy; which the glollary explains.thus, id ejlin cemeterio } 
A T R 
which includes the fprice of forty paces around a large 
church, or thirty round a little church or chapel. 
ATRO'CIOUS, adj. [atrox, Lat.J Wicked in a high 
degree; enormous; horribly criminal.—An advocate is 
necellary, and therefore audience ought not to be denied 
him in defending caufes, unlefs it be an atrocious offence. 
Ay life. 
A fRO'CIOUSLY, adv. In an atrocious manner; with 
great wickednefs. 
ATRO'CIOlfSNESS, f. The quality of being enor- 
moufty criminal. 
ATRO'CITY, f. [ atrocitas, Lat.J Horrible wicked¬ 
nefs ; excefs of wickednefs.—They defined juftice might 
be done upon offenders, as the atrocity of their crimes de- 
ferved. Clarendon. 
A'TROPA, J. [from Atropos, the third Fate, who was 
fuppofed to cut the thread of life.] Deadly Night¬ 
shade. In botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order 
monogynia, natural order of luridse. The generic charac¬ 
ters are—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, five-parted, gib¬ 
bous; divifions acute, permanent; Corolla: one-petalled, 
bell-fliaped ; tube very fhort; border ventricofe, ovate, 
longer than the calyx ; mouth fmall, five-cleft, fpreading; 
divifions fubequal. Stamina: filaments five, fubulate, 
from t he bale of the corolla, and of the fame length with 
it, converging at the bafe, above diverging outwards, 
bowed; antherae thickifh, rifing. Pi (till 11 in : germ femi- 
ovate ; flyle filiform, the length of the ftamens, inclined ; 
ftigma headed, rifing, tranfverfely oblong. Pericarpium: 
berry globular, fitting on a large calyx, two-celled ; re¬ 
ceptacle flefhy, convex on both fides, reniform. Seeds : 
very many, reniform. — EJ'ential Character. Corolla, bell- 
fltaped ; ftamina, diftant; berry globular, two-celled. 
Species. 1. Atropa mandragora, or mandrake : flem- 
lefs, fcapes one-flowered. Mandrake has a long taper root 
fliaped like a parfnip, which runs three or four feet deep 
in the ground ; it is fometimes Angle, and at others divi¬ 
ded into two or three branches, almoft of the colour of the 
parfnip, but a little darker : immediately from the crown 
of the root arifes a circle of leaves, which at firft ftand 
ereft, but when grown to their full fize, fpread open, and 
lie upon the ground : they are more than a foot in length-, 
and are four or five inches broad in the middle, growing 
narrow toward both ends, of a dark green colour, and a 
fetid feent. Among thefe come out the flowers, each on 
a fcape about three inches long : they are five-cornered, 
of an herbaceous white colour, fpreading open at top like 
a primrofe, having five hairy ftamens, and a globular germ 
fupporting an awl-fliaped ftyle, which becomes a globular 
foft berry, when full grown as large as a nutmeg,, of a yel- 
lowifh green colour when ripe, full of pulp. Haller adds, 
that the leaves are ovate-lanceolate, and waved about the 
edges ; that the flowers have a tinge of violet ; and that 
a circular gland furrounds the germ, produced into two 
horns. Native of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Levant. 
It flowers here in March, and the feeds are ripe in July; 
and it appears from Turner’s Herbal to have been culti¬ 
vated in 1562. The roots have been fuppofed to bear a 
refemblanee to the human form, and are figured as fucli 
in the old herbals, being diftinguifhed into the male with 
a long beard, and the female with a prolix head of hair. 
Mountebanks carry about fidlitious images, fhaped from 
roots of briony and other plants, cut into form, or forced 
to grow through moulds of earthen ware, as mandrake- 
roots. It was fabled to grow under a gallows, where the 
matter falling from the dead body gave it the fliape of a 
man ; to utter a great Ihriek, or terrible groans, at the dig¬ 
ging up; and it was aliened, tliat he, who would take up 
a plant of mandrake, Ihould in common prudence tie a 
dog to it for that purpofe ; for, if a man fliould do it him- 
felf, he would furely die foon after. The bare mention 
of finch fables are a fufficient confutation of them ; nor 
would they have been noticed here, had it not been for 
the allufions to them which occur in ancient authors. The 
whole plant is fetid, and reputed to be poifonous, though 
