04 A V I 
A.VICEN‘NiA,y [In honour of the famous oriental 
phyfician Abdallah Ebn Sina, commonly called Avicena."] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs didynamia, order angioi- 
perrnia, natural order of perfonatae. The generic charac¬ 
ters are—Calyx: perianthium five-parted, permanent; 
leaflets fubovate, obtufe, concave, erect, increafed by three 
fcales. Corolla: monopetalous; tube bell-lhaped, fhort; 
border bilabiate ; upper lip fquare, emarginate, flat; lower 
trifid; divifions ovate, equal, flat. Stamina: filaments 
four, fubulate, eredt, the two front ones rather fhorter, 
bent back to the upper lip ; antherae roundilh, twin. Pif- 
tillum : germ ovate; ftyle fubulate, eredt, the length of 
the fiamens; (ligma bifid, acute, the lower divifion bent 
down. Pericarpium: capfule coriaceous, rhomboidal, 
comprefled, one-celled, two-valved. Seed : one, large, 
the form of the capfule, conftrudted of four flelhy folds, 
germinating.— EJfentialCharaBer. Calyx five-parted; co¬ 
rolla bilabiate, upper lip fquare; capfule coriaceous, rhom¬ 
boidal, one-feeded. 
Species. 1. Avicenniatomentofa: leaves cordate-ovate, 
tomentofe underneath. This tree agrees moftly with the 
mangrove, riling not above fifteen or fixteen feet high ; 
its trunk is not fo large, having a fmooth whitilh-green 
bark ; and from the Item are twigs propagating the tree, 
like that: the branches at top are jointed towards their 
ends here and there; where the leaves come out, oppoiite, 
on very fmall petioles, two inches and a half long, one 
inch broad in the middle, fmooth, loft, having one large 
rib of a dark-green colour: the flowers are many, at the 
top of the branches, white, and tetrapetalous. Accord¬ 
ing to Jacquin, it grows to the height of twenty feet or 
more. It varies with acuminate leaves, more or lefs hoary 
underneath. Native of the Ealt and Welt Indies. Dr. 
Patrick Browne fays, that it is frequent near the fea, both 
on the north and fouth fide of Jamaica, growing in low 
moilt ground. 
2. Avicennia nitida : leaves lanceolate, Alining on both 
tides. Height forty feet. Leaves (harp, entire, oppofite, 
three inches long, on lbarp petioles. The capfule opens 
as foon as it has fallen, but not on the tree. The creep¬ 
ing roots throw up abundance of fuckers. Native of Mar- 
tinico. 
3. Avicennia refinifera : leaves ovate-lanceolate, tomen¬ 
tofe underneath. The leaves of this tree are oppoiite, pe- 
tioled, coriaceous, entire, iharp, Ihining above, hoary, with 
a very fhort yellowifli nap beneath, two inches long: pe¬ 
tioles very fhort, femicylindric, wrinkled on the outlide, 
from eredi fpreading. Peduncles terminating, fubtrifid, 
loaded with a head of flowers. Native of New Zealand. 
The green-coloured gum, fo much efieemed by the na¬ 
tives of New Zealand, and which is very hot in the mouth, 
is fuppofed to be the produce of this tree. 
AVPI)ITY,yi \_avidile', Fr. aviditas, Lat.] Greedinefs; 
eagernefs; appetite; inlatiable defire. 
AU'JEST, a town of Bohtmia, in the circle of Chru- 
dim, five miles north of Politza. 
AUJESTIZ', a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Chru- 
dim, five miles weft of Leutmifchel. 
AVIGA'TO PEAR. See Laurus. 
AVIGLIA'NO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 
Naples, and province of Otranto, feven miles E. of Otranto. 
Avigliano, a town of Italy, in the principality of 
Piedmont, and marquifate of Sufa, fituated on a hill, near 
the Cottian Alps, in an open and expofed fituation; the 
air is wholefome, and the land about it fertile; the town 
is fortified, and defended with a caftle. It contains three 
pari fit churches, and feveral religious houfes : eleven miles 
weft of Turin, and twelve eaft-fouth-eaft of Sufa. 
AVIGNON', a efity of France, fituated on the eaft fide 
of the Rhone. Before the revolution, it was the capital 
of a fovereignty, and belonged to the pope, whofe legate 
reftded there, and the fee of an archbiihop, eredted in the 
year 1475. Avignon was the refidence of feveral popes 
fucceflively, from 1307 to 1377. The city is about three 
miles and two furlongs in circumference, and is in general 
A V E 
ill built, irregular, and devoid of beauty. But it is fur- 
rounded by walls and turrets, not unlike thofe of Rome.; 
and its public edifices are large, folid, and grand as the tafte 
of the fourteenth century could make them. Several popes 
and anti-popes, who during their lives fhook the Romiftt 
church with violence and mutual altercation, repofe quiet- 
ly near each other in the various monafteries of the place. 
The church of the Cordeliers contains, in an obfeure cor¬ 
ner, the almoft-defaced tomb of Petrarch’s Laura and her 
hulband Hugh de Sade; and nearly oppofite is the tomb 
of the brave Gullon, fo well known for his invincible cou¬ 
rage as well as for his inviolable attachment to his fovereign 
Henry IV. Many productions of Rere of Anjou are to 
be feen in the city, whofe inhabitants amount to about 
30,000. The curious that travel this way go to fee the 
fountain of Vauclufe, where theriver Sorgucs, which pafles 
through this city, has its fource ; and whither Petrarch 
fo often retired to indulge his grief and hopelefs lovg. It 
is lituated in a valley five miles diftant from the city. The 
fides of the river are (kirted by meadows of the moft live¬ 
ly green; above which rife abrupt and lofty rocks, that 
feem defigned to feclude it from human view. The val¬ 
ley becomes gradually narrower toward the extremity, and 
winding continually deferibes the figure of a horfe-ftioe. 
The view is at length terminated by an enormous mafs of 
rock, forming a barrier acrofs it, of a prodigious height, 
and abfolutely perpendicular. Through its vaft recedes 
run the ftreams which fupply the fountain of Vauclufe, 
and at its foot appears a bafon of water, feveral hundred 
feet in circumference, ftretched like an expanfe, filent and 
quiet. The fides are very fteep, and it is faid that in the 
middle no bottom can be difeovered, though attempts 
have been often made for that purpofe; a circumftance 
probably relulting from the violence with which the fprings 
bubble up, which prevents any weight from defeending 
beyond a certain depth. Though the fountain is clearer 
in itfelf than cryftal, yet the incumbent rock calls a Con¬ 
tinual (hade, approaching to black, over its furface. The 
water, efcaping from this (late of inaction by a narrow paf- 
fage, is immediately precipitated in a cafcade down a rocky 
channel, where it foams over a number of vaft detached 
ftones, which intercept and impede its progrefs. They 
are covered with a deep green mofs of many ages, and 
have probably tumbled from the mountains that overhang 
the torrent. The rocks themfelves, which furround and. 
inveft this- romantic foot, are worn by time and the incle¬ 
mency of the weather into a thoufand extraordinary and 
fantaftic forms, to which imagination gives fliape and fi¬ 
gure. Avignon was at the revolution declared a part of 
France; being thirty polls fouth of Lyons, thirty-four 
weft-north-weft of Nice, and eighty-fix fouth of Paris. 
Lat. 43.57. N. Ion. 22. 29. E. Ferro. 
A viGNON-BERRY,y. the fruit of a fpecies of lycium ; 
growing plentifully near Avignon, and in other parts of 
France. The berry is fomewhat lefs than a pea ; its co¬ 
lour is green, approaching towards a yellow ; and it is of 
an aftringent and bitter tafte. It is much ufed by dyers, 
who ftain a yellow colour with it; and by the painters, who 
alfo make a fine golden yellow of it. 
AVTGNONET', a town of France, in the department 
of the Upper Garrone, and chief place of a canton, in the 
dillridt of Villefranche: twenty miles fouth-eaft of T011- 
loufe, and four fouth-eaft of Villefranche. 
A'VILA, a city of Old Caftile, in Spain, featedon the 
banks of the river Adaja, and in light of the mountains 
of Pico. It is fortified both by nature and art, having a 
wall 907; feet in circumference, adorned with twenty-fix 
lofty towers, and ten handfome gates. There are feven- 
teen principal ftreets, the houfes in which are generally 
good, and fome of them ftately. It hath nine fqunres, 
2000 houfes, nine parilhes, as many monafteries, feven 
nunneries, two colleges, nine hofpitals, eighteen chapels, 
and an allowance of 10,000 ducats yearly tor the mainte¬ 
nance of orphans and other poor people. It has an uni- 
verlity, and a confiderable bilhopric; befides a noble ca¬ 
thedral. 
