148 
ALVEOLI. 
valleys. See articles Granirm, Mica, Trap, Por- 
PHYRY, Basa, Limestone, SANDSTONE, and GREY- 
wackr. Aluminous minerals, so essential to the 
fertility of soils, are the most extensively and 
minutely diffused on the surface of the earth ; and 
they can occasionally be absent from soils capable 
of cultivation, only when certain of their consti- 
tuents are supplied from other sources. Alumi- 
nous or argillaceous earths, therefore, must be 
pronounced essential to the productiveness of 
soil; and they owe all their value to their in- 
variably containing alkalies and alkaline salts, 
with sulphates and phosphates. “ In order,” says 
Dr. Liebig, “to form a distinct conception of the 
quantities of alkalies in aluminous minerals, it 
| must be remembered that felspar contains 173 
per cent. of potash, albite 11.43 per cent. of soda, 
and mica from 3 to 5 per cent., and that zeolite 
contains from 13 to 16 per cent. of alkalies. The 
late analyses of Ch. Gmelin, Lowe, Fricke, Meyer, 
and Redtenbacher, have also shown that basalt 
_and clinkstone contain from ? to 3 per cent. of 
' mal in which the teeth are set. 
| cesses. 
| in a honeycomb; and the teeth sockets in the 
| jaw are called alveoli from their fancied resem- 
| blance to these cells. 
potash, and from 5 to 7 per cent. of soda; that 
claystone contains from 2°75 to 3:31 per cent. of 
potash, and loam from 14$ to 4 per cent. of pot- 
ash.” See Arkanres, Porasu, Sopa, and ArGIt- 
LacEous Sorts.— Sir Humphrey Davy’s Agricul- 
tural Chemistry.—Liebig’s Chemistry of Agricul- 
ture.—Johnstone’s Lectures on Agricultural Chem- 
istvy.— Ure’s Dictionary of Chemistry. 
ALVEOLI. The sockets in the jaw of an ani- 
The spongy parts 
around these sockets are called the alveolar pro- 
Alveoli, in the original sense, are the cells 
AMARANTH, or Ftowrr-Gent1Lze,—hbotanically 
Amaranthus. A large genus of annual flower- 
ing plants, forming the type of the order Ama- 
ranthacee. This order comprises the genera 
Achyranthes, Philoxerus, Desmocheetz, Alterna- 
thera, /Hrua, Lestibudesia, Deeringia, Celosia, 
Gomphrena, Aphananthe, Amaranthus, and Ire- 
sine. The leaves of most of the plants of the order, 
especially when young, are ofa lax, soft texture,and 
abound in saccharine, mucilaginous, and fibrous 
particles, and are therefore fit for food; and the 
seeds of most are farinaceous, consisting of starch 
and mucus, and are nutritive, emollient, and de- 
mulcent. They are found in both hemispheres, 
and in most countries of the world; yet they are 
rare near the equator, and increase both north- 
ward and southward in receding into the tem- 
perate zones. Greatly the majority are weeds; 
yet the genus Gomphrena, the genus Celosia, and 
some species of Amaranthus are highly ornamen- 
tal. The number of species of Amaranthus grow- 
ing in Great Britain is about forty ; and the total 
number known is nearly fifty. All the species in 
Great Britain are annuals; all, with one excep- 
tion, are hardy; most are from the East Indies, 
| a few are from continental Europe, the Levant, 
ie 
AMAUROSIS. 
North America, Brazil, China, and Japan, and 
one—Amaranthus blitum—is indigenous on the 
dunghills of England. Two—Amaranihus hy- 
pochondriacus and Amaranthus caudatus, often 
called the lesser and the greater amaranths, and 
very popularly known under the names of prince’s 
feather and love-lies-bleeding—are cultivated as 
favourite border flowers throughout Britain ; 
three others—melancholicus, tricolor, and san- 
guineus—are cultivated in Britain as ornamental 
annuals ; one—polygamus—is cultivated as spin- 
age in Guiana and China; and three—oleraceus, 
tristis, and viridis—are used as spinage in the 
East Indies. 
AMARYLLIS. A large genus of gorgeous bul- 
bous plants, constituting the type of the natural 
order amaryllidez, but often identified, by popu- 
lar designation, with the lily tribe. The order 
amaryllideze comprises the genera narcissus, pan- 
cratium, eucrosia, eurycles, calostemma, chlidan- 
thus, chrysiphiala, hamanthus, galanthus, leuco- 
jum, strumaria, crinum, cyrtanthus, brunsvigia, 
nerine, amaryllis, vallota, griffinia, sternbergia, 
zephyranthes, habranthus, doryanthes, gethyllis, 
alstroemeria, and conanthera. This great group 
of plants is so superb in the form, tints, and 
fragrance of its flowers as to have been in high 
popular favour since at least the days of Solomon, 
and to figure in the most glorious of all records 
as “ the lilies of the field.’ All have bulbous 
roots; all, excepting doryanthes and some spe- 
cies of crinum, are less than two feet in height ; 
they possess a singular uniformity of foliage ; they 
vary in the colour of their flowers, from white 
and yellow to azure and deep scarlet; and they 
vie in fragrance with the primrose and the vio- 
let. Some are natives of thickets in the cooler 
districts of Europe and Asia; some grow deep on 
the burning, arid, and sterile shores of islands in 
the torrid zone; some are found in the damp, 
gloomy, and sultry woods of equinoctial America ; 
and some are indigenous among the gladioli and 
the ixias of Southern Africa. The number of 
species of the genus amaryllis grown in Great 
Britain is upwards of 30; and the total number 
known is about 40. All the species in Great 
Britain are ornamental; a large proportion are 
magnificently beautiful, and several are perfectly 
superb; yet only five—the white, the Belladonna 
lily, the pale-flowered, the long-leaved, and the 
Tartarian—are hardy, all the others being plants 
of the greenhouse or the stove. Some of the 
best known are those called the Jacobea lily, the 
Mexican lily, the Barbadoes lily, the revolute ama- 
ryllis, the Belladonna lily, and the long-leaved 
amaryllis. inn 
AMAUROSIS, Gurra-Serena, or Guass-Eye. 
The total blindness of horse, ox, or sheep, from 
the paralysis of the optic nerve. The pupil of 
the eye is unusually dilated, and is immoveable, 
bright, and glassy ; yet the appearance of the eye 
is sometimes so slightly or almost imperceptibly 
altered, that the existence of the disease is de- 
