1 
240 ARGEMONE. 
Species with our domestic sheep, proof was ob- 
tained from the specimen brought to England 
by the celebrated Pascal Paoli, which was the 
parent of a mixed progeny here ; hence, there is 
some ground to suspect that the musmon and 
ophion of the ancients were not synonymous 
names for the same animal, and that the wild 
sheep of Spain and the Carpathian mountains 
are not the mufro of Corsica. The Spanish wild 
sheep mixed however with the domestic, and 
the intermediate breed, according to Pliny, were 
named umbri. The musmons of Sardinia and 
|| Corsica never quit the highest ridges; where, 
however, the temperature allows no permanent 
snows. ‘They live in small herds, headed by an 
| old male, uniting occasionally into flocks of near 
one hundred; but they separate again in Decem- 
| ber and January, when the rutting season com- 
| mences, and the usual battles have decided how 
| many females each male can retain. The females 
_ yean two lambs in April and May, which run 
_ about the moment they are dropped, and are 
cherished and defended with great constancy by 
their dams: they are not adult till the third 
year, but the power of procreation is the same 
as in the domestic races, and can commence at 
_ eighteen months. See article Sarup.—Dr. Pallas 
| on Sheep.—Spooner on Sheep—Low’s Elements of 
| Practical Agriculture.— Smith’s Supplement to 
Cuvier.— Lewis and Clarke’s Travels, vol. i.— 
Shaw’s General Zoology, vol. ii—Godman’s Na- 
tural History, vol. il. 
ARGEMONE. An annual medicinal plant of 
the poppy family. Two kinds of it are known, 
the yellow-flowered and the white-flowered ; but 
they seem to be varieties of one species,—and 
| both are from Mexico and the West Indies, and 
grow to the height of two feet. The argemone 
_is called by the Spaniards the Devil’s fig, and 
| sometimes by Britons the prickly poppy. It is 
a very troublesome weed in the West Indies, yet 
is sometimes grown in British gardens as a curi- 
ous ornamental plant. Its fruit has a fig-like 
appearance, and is armed with prickles. Its 
seeds are said to yield a narcotic substance as 
powerful as opium. A milky glutinous juice 
flows from the whole plant; turns, by exposure 
to the air, into a fine bright yellow; and when 
| reduced to the consistence of a firm gum, is not 
| distinguishable from gamboge, and has, we be- 
lieve, been brought into the market under the 
name of that drug. It has similar properties to 
gamboge, both as a medicine and as a pigment ; 
and it has been administered, in very small doses, 
in cases of dropsy, jaundice, cutaneous eruption, 
and some other diseases. 
ARGILLACEOUS EARTH. Any earthy sub- 
stance, whether soil or stone, powder or rock, 
sand or paste, which contains alumina, or has an 
admixture of clay. The soils called carse lands, 
and the rocks called claystones and clay-porphy- 
| ries, are the most conspicuous specimens of ar- 
gillaceous earths; and all adhesive lands, loams, 
ARIA. 
and pasty or soluble soils usually contain a large 
proportion of argillaceous matter. Argillaceous 
earth, in all its varieties, always contains alkalies. 
and alkaline salts, with sulphates and phosphates; 
}and, in consequence, it is eminently fertilizing, 
or rather is an indispensable and bulky ingredient 
in all productive land. See AuKaties, ALUMINA, 
and Cuay. 
ARGILLACEKOUS STONES. Nearly, all the 
stones known to builders as slate-stone belong to 
this class. The most remarkable varieties are 
those denominated the trap rocks by mineralogists, 
which consist either of basalt, or greenstone. 
Basalt is very remarkable for its great strength 
and hardness; though it is less durable than 
many varieties of the siliceous class. Green- 
stone, so called from the greenish tint it exhibits 
when wet, is found very abundantly in Britain. 
It is a good building material, when it does not 
contain any large quantity of iron; this metal, 
by becoming oxidized, very soon entirely destroys 
the texture of the stone, causing it to break up 
into small fragments or scales. It is only suitable 
for rubble work, owing to its being found chiefly 
in small tabular prismatic masses; but from the 
facility with which it is quarried, and its-un- 
changeableness in salt-water, it has been sume- 
times used for break-water stone. Graywacke, 
and graywacke slate, properly belong to the sand- 
stones. They are composed of the fragments of 
several other minerals, in a granular state, united 
by an argillaceous cement. Both of these stones 
make a good building material for rubble work ; 
and the graywacke slate is in very common use 
as a flagging and coping-stone. Common roof 
slate requires no particular description. There 
are many varieties of this stone which are very 
suitable for rubble work. The best for roof 
covering is that which splits into thin even 
layers,—which absorbs but little moisture,—and 
which is free from the ores of iron, particularly 
the sulphurets, which are most deleterious to it. 
Quarries of slate and slate-stones are abundantly 
distributed in various districts in England: but 
the best and principal supply of roofing slate is 
obtained from Caernarvonshire in Wales. The 
quarries of Green-moor in Yorkshire supply ex- 
cellent paving flags,—as do also those of Valen- 
tia in Ireland, some of which are remarkably fine 
and durable. 
ARIA, or Wuirr-Bram-Trex, — botanically 
Pyrus Aria. A species of timber-tree, closely 
allied to the pear-tree, the apple-tree, the service- 
tree, the azarole, and the hawthorn, and bearing 
blossoms of the rosaceous order. It was botani- 
cally classed, till lately, with the cratzegus or 
hawthorn genus; and it is sometimes popularly 
called the White-leaf Tree, the Oval-leaved Wild 
Service, and the Aria Theophrasti. It grows in- 
digenously on the hills of Kent and Surrey, and 
in most of the cold parts of Europe; and it at- 
tains a height of 40 feet, and blooms in May and 
June. Itsstem is straight, symmetric, and freely 
