ANTHEMIS. See Cuamomtne. 
ANTHERICUM. A large genus of herbaceous 
plants, of the Asphodel family. Most of the spe- 
cies are African ; the total. number is about fifty ; 
and only one, Anthericum serotinum, is indigen- 
ous in England, growing upon the English moun- 
tains, and carrying a white flower in August and 
September. 
ANT-HILL. See Anr. 
ANTHONOMUS. A genus of insects of the 
weevil tribe. The species best known to farmers 
and gardeners is called Anthonomus pomorum, 
and has this name from its infesting apple-trees ; 
and it has long been. distinguished as a formi- 
dable pest of the cider counties and of almost all 
British orchards. It differs from most other 
kinds of weevil in the length and slenderness of 
its rostrum compared to the shortness and breadth 
of its body. Its rostrum is at least half the length 
of its body, and is proportionately slender; its 
antennee are twelve-jointed, and inserted near 
the middle; its thorax is somewhat conical, and 
| much narrowed in front; its elytra are broad, 
and widen behind; and its legs are long, and 
| thighs very thick. Its entire length is about two 
| lines; and its colour is a pitchy red, obscured by 
a sprinkling of short ash-gray hairs. This insect 
passes the winter beneath lichens and the bark 
of trees; and, so early as March, emerges from its 
winter quarters, warms itself in the earliest sun- 
shine, and begins to rove about gardens and 
orchards. The female is ready to lay her eggs 
when the flower-buds of the apple-tree are either 
beginning to expand or have fully developed ; 
and, with her long augur-like proboscis, she 
pierces a deep hole in the calyx, and deposits her 
| eggs beyond the reach of small birds and of the 
weather. A small white grub, similar to the 
larva of any other long-snouted weevil, speedily 
evolves from the egg, eats up all the interior parts 
of the flower, utterly destroys its power of fruc- 
tification, and occasions it soon to assume the 
shrivelled form and sickly brown colour which 
are popularly denominated the apple-blight. At- 
tempts to avert the blight must be directed, not 
against the eggs or larvee, for in that case they 
would be vain, but against the full-formed insect 
during the period of its being in winter quarters. 
Yet specific attempts of any sort against the an- 
thonomus are not likely to be successful; and 
only those efforts ought to be relied upon which 
are found most efficacious against all the sorts of 
insects by which fruit trees are assailed—parti- 
cularly the brushing, washing, and painting of 
garden-walls, and the application of finely pul- 
verized caustic lime, or of some pungent com- 
pound preparation, to the bark or entire body of 
all trees in which the insects may be supposed to 
have lodgments. 
ANTHOXANTHUM,—popularly Spring Grass. 
A small genus of grasses, of the Bromus tribe. 
One species is indigenous in Great Britain; two 
species have been introduced from respectively 
ANTHOXANTHUM. 203 
Morocco and Spain; and three other species are 
known to botanists. The genus presents the 
curious botanical peculiarity of being in all na- 
tural respects a true grass, and yet belonging to 
a different artificial or Linnzean class from the 
other grasses. The Morocco or bitter species, 
Anthoxanthum amarum, is perennial, grows one 
foot high, and flowers in July. The Spanish or 
ovate species, Anthoxanthum ovatum, is an an- 
nual, and also grows one foot high, and flowers 
in July. The indigenous or sweet-scented spe- 
cies, Anthoxanthum odoratum, is a perennial, 
grows one foot high, and flowers about the middle 
or toward the end of April; and this native spe- 
cies is the only one which can be considered as 
agricultural, and challenges nearly all the atten- 
tion due to the genus. See W729. 4. Plate VJ. 
The indigenous anthoxanthum grows wild in 
most of our meadows and pastures; it imparts to 
all our meadow hay its peculiar sweet odour, re- 
sembling the fragrance of woodroff ; and it diffuses 
this delightful odour, also, through the air of the 
uncut meadows from its ripening seeds. It is 
one of the very few plants which, both in their 
green and in their ripe state, contain benzoic 
acid; it derives its generic name of anthoxan- 
thum, or yellow-flower, from the circumstance of 
the valves of its calyx being sprinkled over with 
minute yellow dots, similar to those of black cur- 
rant berries; and it is supposed to yield its rich 
fragrance from the connexion of these dots with 
its benzoic acid. Itconstitutes part of the her- 
bage of almost all varieties and situations of na- 
tural pasture; yet though habituated to every 
kind of soil, and though found in meadow and 
on mountain throughout England, Scotland, and 
Ireland, it attains perfection only on soils which 
are deep and moist It challenges considerable 
attention for the earliness of its growth; and yet | 
it yields a smaller proportional bulk of vernal | 
herbage than some grasses which are late in 
flowering. It is, in all respects, a very hardy 
grass; and may be ranked as one of the most en- 
during or technically permanent. It continues 
to vegetate and throw up flowering stalks till 
the end of autumn; and appears to be consider- 
ably more valuable in the herbage of its after- 
grass than in that of its spring crop. It gives a 
grateful odour to both meadows and meadow- 
hay, and has been observed to abound in such 
pastures as produce richly flavoured mutton ; and 
it has, in consequence, been recommended as a 
large ingredient in a mixture of artificial grasses 
or of sown pasture land, with the view of im- 
proving the flavour of mutton. Yet its seeds are 
gathered with considerable difficulty, and are 
comparatively high in price; its stalks are of 
little value, and seem to be much disliked by 
cattle; and even its leaves, though eaten in pas- 
tures along with other herbage, are by no means 
so much relished as those of the majority of pas- 
ture grasses. If sown with nothing but clover, 
sheep will probably not touch it; if sown with 
