unger 
~ AMMONIACAL GAS. 
ulent colic, been administered to horses, with de- 
cidedly good effect, and after other remedies had 
failed. In the form of hartshorn, it is an useful 
ingredient in some stimulating liniments, parti- 
cularly such as are used for paralytic affections 
in cattle. In the form of carbonate, it has been 
much extolled as a specific for hoove in cattle; 
but, when tried in, this capacity by Mr. Youatt, 
who always doubted its efficacy, it failed. “It 
was administered,” says he, “as a chemical prin- 
ciple, it being supposed that the alkali would 
neutralize the acid gas that was extricated from 
the fermenting food; but it has been proved that 
this gas consists chiefly either of carburetted or 
_sulphuretted hydrogen; besides which there is 
another consideration, that, except administered 
by means of Read’s pump, not one drop of the 
ammonia would find its way into the paunch.” 
—Ures Dictionary of Chemistry.—Liebig’s Or- 
gante Chemistry.—Johnston’s Lectures on Agricul- 
| tural Chemistry —Boussingault’s Rural Economy. 
—Annales de Chimie et de Physique—Quarterly 
Journal of Agriculture.—Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society—Loudon’s Gardener's Maga- 
ziné.— Youait on the Horse—Youatt on Cattle, 
AMMONIACAL GAS, SALTS, &c. See Am- 
MONIA. 
AMOMUM. A genus of tender herbaceous 
plants, of the Ginger family. Seven species, all 
from Africa and the East Indies, have been in- 
troduced to the hothouses of Great Britain; and 
about thirteen other species are known to bot- 
anists. One of the species, Amomum grana para- 
dist, yields the grains-of-paradise of the shops; 
and several of the species are regarded in the 
east as antidotes to poison. We notice the 
genus principally on account of its being very 
generally confounded with the cardamom of the 
shops, which is really a species of alpinia; with 
ginger, which is itself a genus, comprising about 
sixteen species; and especially with a medicinal 
herb of the hedges and groves of England, popu- 
larly called bastard stone-parsley, growing to the 
height of three feet, and bearing seeds which 
have somewhat the smell of mace. 
AMORPHA—popularly Bastarp Inpigo. A 
genus of North American deciduous shrubs, of 
the Pea tribe. Six species are known to botan- 
ists, and have all been introduced to Great Bri- 
tain. The best known species, Amorpha fruticosa, 
was formerly used in Carolina as an indigo plant ; 
and continues to be extensively cultivated in 
Britain as a hardy ornamental shrub. This plant 
possesses very considerable beauty, but is encum- 
bered with some serious defects. Its foliage is 
not fully displayed till late in spring; and the 
ends of its branches are often destroyed, or other- 
wise permanently damaged, by frost. Its leaves 
are large, of a pleasant green colour, and beau- 
tifully pinnated, with folioles arranged in pairs, 
and an odd foliole at the end. Its flowers are 
purple in colour, and singular in structure; and 
they grow in spikes seven or eight inches in 
length. The amorpha produces its best effect 
when planted in clusters or small groves, in a 
well-sheltered situation. This plant may be pro- | 
pagated either by layers or by seeds obtained 
from America. 
AMPELOPSIS. A genus of ornamental climb- 
ing shrubs of the vine family. Four species have 
been introduced to Britain from North America; | 
and two other species are known to botanists. 
Two of the species, the hairy and the virgin 
creeper, grow to the height of sixty feet. All 
the species closely resemble the vine in habit, 
leaves, and flowers; they grow with great rapid- 
ity; and they are used for covering old walls. 
AMYGDALOID. A kind of trap rock. It 
consists of a greenstone or fine trap with small 
imbedded spheroids of other mineral matter, of 
the general form of almonds. It is a compara- 
tively rare rock; and yields by disintegration 
the same sort of general soil as most varieties of 
greenstone, basalt, and olivine porphyry. 
AMYGDALUS. See Atmonp. 
AMYLINE. A farinaceous substance of a na- 
ture intermediate between starch and gum. It 
is soluble in boiling water; and yields by evapo- | 
ration a pale, semi-transparent, brittle substance, 
which is insoluble in alcohol, but soluble to any 
extent in water at 144°, and soluble in ten times 
its weight of cold water. Starch, dissolved in 
twelve times its weight of water, and exposed to 
the air for two years in a shallow capsule, becomes 
a gray liquid, covered with mould, free from smell, 
and without action on vegetable blue colours; 
and an analysis of this liquid will show that one- 
fourth of the starch by weight has disappeared, and 
that the remainder has passed into amyline, gum, 
sugar, starchy lignine, and lignine mixed with 
MIMO, 159 
charcoal,—the sugar alone amounting to one-half | 
of the starch. The word amyline is sometimes, 
though incorrectly, used to express the sum of 
nutritious matter in albuminous vegetables; and 
the epithet amylaceous is often applied to the 
cereal grains and other plants which yield the 
fine flour from which starch can be made. 
ANACARDIUM. See Casuzw Nov. 
ANAGALLIS. See Pimprrnet. 
ANAGYRIS,—popularly Bran-Trerom. A 
genus of tender evergreen shrubs, of the Pea 
tribe. 
high, and was introduced from Teneriffe in 1815; 
the Nepaul species grows eight feet high, and | 
was introduced from Nepaul in 1821; and the 
fetid or stinking species grows nine feet high, 
and was introduced from Spain in 1570. The 
last has sported itself into several varieties, and 
acquired hardiness of habit. Its leaves are hoary 
in all the varieties, but oblong and narrow in 
some, and oval and moderately broad in others; 
and its flowers are numerous, of a bright yellow 
colour, and produced from the sides of the branches 
like those of laburnum. 
ANALOGY. A certain relation, correspond- 
ence, or agreement, between several things in 
The broad-leaved species grows ten feet | 
