ARACHIS. 
air than in the house, and to thrive and flourish 
beyond his most sanguine expectation. 
The tuber is tender, and easily cooked, and is 
prepared for food in the same manner as pota- 
toes, but requires to be very thoroughly boiled. 
It is grateful to the palate, congenial to the 
stomach, and at once so nutritious and so easy of 
digestion as to be a fit ‘principal aliment to young 
children, sick adults, and all persons of feeble or 
impaired powers of digestion, Its flavour has a 
medium character between that of the potatoe 
and that of the parsnip. Some persons relish it, 
and others rather dislike it, at the first time of 
tasting it; but even the latter speedily relish it, 
and all persons like it increasingly the longer it 
is used. A fecula manufactured from it is em- 
ployed as both starch and pastry-flour; and the 
pulp of it enters into the composition of certain 
South American fermented liquors, which are 
supposed to be efficacious as tonics. The tubers 
have been thought to resemble in flavour and 
other properties the small, sweet, pleasant, fari- 
naceous, nutritious tubers of the great earth-nut, 
Bunium bulbocastanum, and Bunium flecuosum, so 
well known in many of the dry pastures of Great 
Britain, and so greedily sought after and highly 
relished by hogs and children.—Ourtis’s Botanical 
Magazine—Loudon’s Gardener's Magazine.—Re- 
| pertory of Inventions—Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture. 
ARACHIS,—popularly American Harth-nut. A 
genus of annual plants of the pea tribe. The 
species hypogzea or underground is the only one 
well known; it derives its name from the curious 
| circumstance of the pods forcing themselves into 
the soil, and there ripening their seeds; it was 
introduced to Great Britain from South America 
in 1712; it is supposed to be a native of Africa, 
and to have been taken by slaves to the new 
world; and it is profusely cultivated in all the 
warmer parts of both South and North America. 
Its seeds are used in South Carolina as a substi- 
tute for chocolate ; in eastern countries, as a sub- 
stitute for almonds; and in Cochin-China, for the 
expression of an oil which feeds lamps and serves 
the same purposes as oil of olives. In the dis- 
trict around Paris, the plant is raised on hot- 
beds, and transplanted to the open gardens, there 
to ripen its pods for use in the same manner as 
other esculent legumes; and in England, it has 
been brought to maturity, and proved very pro- 
lific, in the stove. Its stem attains the height 
of two feet ; its branches trail upon the ground ; 
its flowers are yellow, appear in May and June, 
and are produced singly on long foot-stalks ; and 
its pods so completely bury themselves in the soil 
that, unless the ground is opened, they cannot 
be found. The negroes are said to have known 
its burrowing habit during many years before 
their masters, and to have surreptitiously helped 
themselves to its seeds. ; 
ARALIA. A genus of plants, nearly allied to 
the umbelliferous family, and forming the type 
ARBITRATION. 
of the order Araliaceze. The most conspicuous 
species is the An@unica-TREn, which has been | 
noticed in its own alphabetical place ; three other 
species, the hispid, the berry-bearing, and the 
naked-stalked, all deciduous ornamental plants 
and natives of North America, the first an under- 
shrub, the second an herb, and the third a climber, 
have been introduced to the gardens of Britain ; 
a fifth species, the umbel-bearing, exudes an aro- 
matic gum resin from its bark ; and about twenty- 
seven other species are known to botanists.——The 
tribe Araliaceze comprises the genera aralia, cas- 
sonia, hedera, actinophyllum, gastonia, and panax; | 
it is nearly allied to the extensive order umbelli- | 
ferze; it possesses much beauty of foliage, parti- 
cularly in the ivies and the actinophyllums; it 
has generally tonic roots, with, in some instances, 
the flavour of the parsnip ; and, except in its fruit, 
it closely agrees in medicinal properties, as well 
as in other matter, with the great umbelliferous 
family. 
ARAUCARIA. See Avracartra. 
ARBEEL. See ABELE. 
ARBITRATION. A private mode of deciding | 
differences, by a voluntary reference of disputed 
claims to the decision of one or more persons 
named as arbiters by the parties. 
of terminating disputes certainly deserves encour- 
agement, on account of its tendency to diminish 
expense to parties, and to allay that heat and 
animosity which is too often produced and fos- | 
tered by the proceedings in a public court of 
justice. 
contract entered into by the parties, whereby 
they fix and determine the matters in con- 
troversy, define the powers of the arbiters, 
and mutually bind themselves to abide by the 
award. 
This method | 
The decision or award of the arbiters | 
proceeds upon a deed of submission, which is a _ 
<a 
Experience having shown the great advantage | 
of these peaceable and private tribunals—especi- | 
ally in settling matters of account, and other | 
mercantile transactions, which it is extremely 
difficult to adjust on a trial at law—the English 
legislature established the use of them by statute 
9 and 13, William III., c. 15, which enacts, that 
all merchants and others, who desire to end any | 
controversy, (for which there is no other remedy | 
but by personal action or suit in equity,) may | 
agree that their submission of the suit to arbitra- 
tion or umpirage shall be made a rule of any of 
the king’s courts of record; and after such rule 
made, the parties disobeying the award shall be 
liable to be punished as for a contempt of the 
court, unless such award shall be set aside for 
corruption or other misbehaviour in the arbitra- 
tors or umpire, proved on oath to the court within 
one term after the award is made. And in con- 
sequence of this statute, it is now become a con- 
siderable part of the business of the superior 
courts, to set aside such awards, when partially 
or illegally made; or to enforce their execution, 
when legal, by the same process of contempt as 
