was acknowledged, yet his power was seldom efficient, and the constant dissensions of so many small tribes, rendered the island an easy prey. 5. In the year 1170, Henry II. permitted Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, to effect a settlement in Ire. land, which laid the foundation of the English possessions in that country. There are however coins of Canute, king of England, struck at Dublin, perhaps in acknowledg. ment of his power, by the Danish settlers. After this period Ireland became, in some measure, a commercial country, and her history is to be looked for in that of Eng. land, with which it is interwoven. Upon a review of the more ancient of these historical epochs, and of the monuments which may be considered as belonging to each, it must be considered that the edifices having been constructed of wood till the eleventh or twelfth century, it cannot be expected that any remains of them should exist. Stone was chiefly employed in the construction of funeral erections of various kinds; nor are barrows wanting in Ireland, being hillocks of earth, thrown up in commemoration of the illustrious dead. Other monuments, commonly stiled Druidic, may also be found in Ireland; such as single stones erect, circular temples or rather places of judgment, and the like, which may more properly be ascribed to the Belgic colony. The conversion of Ireland to Christianity was followed by the erection of a vast number of churches and monasteries, the latter being computed to exceed one thousand in number; but all these edifices were originally small, and constructed of interwoven withs, or hewn wood; for St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, mentions a stone church as a singular novelty in Ireland. But the Scandinavian chiefs must before this period have introduced the use of stone into the castles, necessary for their own de. fence against a nation whom they oppressed; and sometimes even subterraneous re treats were deemed expedient, of which Ware and others have engraved specimens, To the Scandinavian period also belong what are called the Danes Raths, or circular intrenchments; and some chapels, such as those of Glendaloch, Portaferry, Killaloe, Saul Abbey, St. Doulach, and Cashel, if we may judge from the singularity of the orna ments, which however only afford vague conjecture. But of the round castles, called Duns in Scotland, and of the obelisks engraven with figures or ornaments, few or none exist in Ireland. Under the Scandi

navians the Irish coinage first dawns. Of the eleventh and twelfth centuries many monuments, castellated or religious, may probably exist in Ireland. Brian Boro, king of Munster, having been declared sovereign of Ireland in the year 1002, he distinguished himself by his virtues and courage; and Dermid III. A. D. 1041–1073, was also an excellent and powerful prince. Under these monarchs and their successors, Terdelvac and Moriertac, the power of the Scandinavians was considerably weakened. The native chiefs had been taught the ne. cessity of fortresses, and were generally devoutly attached to religion; it is therefore to be inferred, that many castles, churches, and monasteries now began to be partly constructed in stone, by architects invited from France and England; but perhaps the round towers were erected by native builders. Among smaller reliques of antiquity, the golden trinkets found in a bog near Cullen, in the south, deserve mention: as gold was found in Gaul, they are perhaps ornaments of the ancient chiefs, brought from that region.

It remains now to mention the names of some of those authors who have written on the antiquities of our own country. Tacitus was an eye-witness to the ceremonies of Druidism in England, as the Romans were in Wales. To him, to Cæsar already referred to, and to Dio Cassius, we refer, as the chief authorities in regard to British history. To these may be added Ælian, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Pliny. Cluverius, Pezron, and Pelloutier are more modern, but respectable writers on the same subject. Of the structures erected by the Britons, Abury and Stonhenge may be deemed the principal. Relics of a smaller kind are continually discovered a few feet beneath the surface of the earth. On these Stukely and Rowland are the best authorities: the former has written a volume on Abury, a temple of the Druids, in which is a particular account of the first and patriarchal religion, and of the peopling of the British islands: besides his larger work, entitled “Itinerarium Curiosum," being an account of the antiquities, &c. observed in travels through Great Britain, published in 1724. For the history of the Britons under the Roman Government, Horsley's Brit. Rom. is a work that may be depended upon. With respect to the antiquities of the Saxons, the illuminated manuscripts are the best records of their manners in the different centuries, and the most interesting information respecting

them has been collected by Turner and Strutt. The best collection of Saxon coins is in the British Museum, and of manuscripts in the same place and in the Bodleian Library. Mr. King has treated of their military antiquities in his History of Castles; and independently of our works on topography which are numerous, and many of them of the first respectability, and which throw considerable light on the antiquities of the country, we may refer to Henry's History of England, where the subject is discussed systematically and in chronological order; and to the works of Camden, Strutt, and Gough, to which may be added the whole series of the Gentleman's Magazine, and Pinkerton's Geography, to which we have been indebted for a part of this article.

As the antiquities of the united kingdom are in some respects connected with those of the Danes and other northern nations, we may suggest to the reader what are the principal remains of those people, as a clue to his future inquiries.

The ancient monuments of Denmark and Norway are chiefly Runic, though it is far from certain at what period the use of Runic characters extended so far north. Circles of upright stones are common in all the Danish dominions, the islands, Norway and Iceland, in which latter country their origin is perfectly ascertained, as some were erect ed even in recent times of the Icelandic republic, being called domh-ring, or circles of judgment. Some also appear to have been the cemeteries of superior families. Monuments also occur of two upright stones with one across; and of the other forms supposed to be Druidic. The residences of the chiefs appear to have been generally constructed of wood; as there are very few ancient castles existing in Denmark or Norway.

Of Sweden the ancient monuments consist chiefly of judicial circles and other erections of unhewn stone, together with remains inscribed with Runic characters, none of which are imagined to have existed longer than the eleventh century.

In Russia, the ancient monuments are neither numerous nor afford much variety. There are to be met with the tombs of their pagan ancestors, containing weapons and ornaments. From the writings of Herodotus we learn that the Scythians regarded the cemeteries of their princes with singular ve⚫ neration; the Sarmations or Slavons seem to have imbibed the same ideas. The cacatombs of Kiow, it is believed, were form

ed in the pagan period, though they are now replete with marks of Christianity. They are labyrinths of considerable extent, dug, as it should seem, through a mass of hardened clay, but they do not appear to contain the bodies of the sovereigns. The idols of Pagan Russia are sometimes found cast in bronze; and Dr. Guthrie has given a good account of the Slavonic mythology, to whose "Dissertations sur les Antiquites de Russie," we refer the reader. We may however observe, that the pagan Russians worshipped one god, supposed to be author of thunder; another, that resembled the Pan of the ancients; others, answering to the Sun, Hercules, Mars, Venus, and Cupid. They had also goddesses corresponding with Ceres, Diana, and Pomona, and their nymphs of the woods and waters. They worshipped Znitch or Vesta in the form of fire, and venerated waters, the Bog being as highly regarded by the ancient Russians as the Ganges among the Indians: the Don and the Danube were. also considered as holy streams; and there was a sacred lake, environed with a thick forest, in the isle of Rugen, which was adored by the Sclavonic tribes.

ANTIRRHINUM, snapdragon, toadfiar, in botany, a genus of the Didynamia Angiosperma. Calyx five-parted; corol with a necteriferous prominence at its base, pointing downwards; the orifice closed and furnished with a cloven convex palate: capsule two-celled. This genus is separated into five divisions, viz. A. leaves angular; capsules many valved. B. leaves opposite; capsules many valved. C. leaves alternate; capsules many valved. D. corols without spur; capsules perforated with three pores. E. leaves pinnatifid. There are 12 species of the first division; nearly 40 of the second division; 11 of the third; 7 of the fourth; and 2 of the last.

- ANTISTROPHE, in grammar, a figure by which two things mutually dependent on one another, are reciprocally converted. As the servant of the master, and the master of the servant,

ANTISTROPHE, among lyric poets, that part of a song and dance in use among the ancients, which was performed before the altar, in returning from west to east, in opposition to strophe. See the articles STROPHE and ODE.

ANTITHESIS, in rhetoric, a contrast drawn between two things, which thereby serve as shades to set off the opposite qualities of each other.

The poets, historians, and orators im

AOR

prove their subject, and greatly heighten the pleasure of the reader, by the pleasing opposition of their characters and descriptions.

The beautiful antithesis of Cicero, in his second Cartilinarian, may serve for an example: "On the one side stands modesty, on the other impudence; on the one fidelity, on the other deceit; here piety, there sacrilege; here continency, there lust, &c." And Virgil, in his admirable description of Dido's despair, the night before her death, represents all the rest of the creation enjoying profound tranquillity, to render the disquietude of that miserable queen the more affecting.

ANTOECI, in geography, an appellation given to those inhabitants of the earth who live under the same meridian, but on different sides of the equator, and at equal distances from it.

These have noon, and midnight, and all hours at the same time, but contrary seasons of the year; that is, when it is spring with the one, it is autumn with the other; when summer with the one, winter with the other. And the days of the one are equal to the nights of the other, and vice versa.

ANTONOMASIA, in rhetoric, a figure by which the proper name of one thing is applied to several others; or, on the contrary, the name of several things to one. Thas we call a cruel person, a Nero; and we say the philosopher, to denote Aristotle. ANTS, acid of. See FORMIC ACID.

ANVIL, an iron instrument on which smiths hammer or forge their work, and usually mounted on a firm wooden block. A forged anvil is reckoned better than one of cast work.

ANUS, in anatomy, the extremity of the intestinum rectum, or orifice of the fundament. See ANATOMY.

AORIST, among grammarians, a tense peculiar to the Greek language, comprehending all the tenses; or rather, expressing an action in an indeterminate manner, without any regard to past, present, or future. AORTA, in anatomy, called also arteria magna, a large artery arising with a single trunk from the left ventricle of the heart above its valves, called semilunares, and serves to convey the mass of blood to all parts of the body.

After ascending a little upwards, its trunk is bent, in manner of an arch, and from this part it sends, in human subjects, usually three ascending branches. This is called the aorta ascendens.

The descendens is that part of the trunk which, after the arch-like inflection, descends through the thorax and the abdomen down to the os sacrum, and is usually larger in women than in men. The aorta hath four tunics, à nervous, a glandulous, a muscular, and a membranous one. See ANATOMY.

APACTIS, in botany, a genus of the Dodecandria Monagynia class and 'order. No calyx; petals four, crenate, unequal; germ superior; fruit. There is but a single species, viz. the Japonica, a tree found, as its name imports, in Japan.

APALUS, in natural history, a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera. Gen. char. antennæ filiform; feelers equal, filiform; jaw horny, one-toothed; lip membranaceous, truncate, entire. There are two species, maculatus and the bimaculatus.

APARGIA, in botany, a genus of the Syngenesia Æqualis class and order. Receptacle naked; calyx imbricate; down feathery, sessile. There are 17 species.

APATITE, in mineralogy, one of the species of the Phosphates, occurs in tin veins, and is found in Cornwall and Germany. Colours white, green, blue, and red, of various shades. The primitive form of its crystals is a regular six-sided prism. Specific gravity between 2.8 and 3.2. When laid on ignited coals it emits a green light, and is almost entirely soluble in nitric acid. By rubbing it shews signs of electricity. It was formerly considered as a species of schorl, afterwards, on account of its colour and crystallization, it was arranged with beryll; others described it as fluor, but Werner soon found that it was a new species. Its fallacious resemblance to other minerals induced Werner to give it this name, which is derived from analaw, to deceive."

APE. See SIMIA.

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APETALOSE, or APETALOUS, among botanists, an appellation given to such plants as have no flower leaves.

APEX, in antiquity, the crest of a helmet, but more especially a kind of cap worn by the flamens.

APHÆRESIS, in grammar, a figure by which a letter or syllable is cut off from the beginning of a word.

APHÆRESIS, that part of surgery which teaches to take away sùperfluities.

APHELIUM, or APHELION, in astronomy, is that point in any planet's orbit, in which it is farthest distant from the sun; being in the new astronomy, that end of the

greater axis of the elliptical orbit of the planet, most remote from the focus wherein the sun is. The times of the aphelia of the primary planets may be known by their apparent diameters appearing least; as also, by their moving slowest in a given time. They may likewise be found by calculation, the method of doing which is delivered in most astronomical writers.

Sir Isaac Newton and Dr. Gregory have proved that the aphelia of the primary planets are at rest. See Princip. prop. 14. lib. 3. And in the scholium to the above proposition they say, that the planets nearest to the sun, viz. Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars, from the actions of Jupiter and Saturn upon them, move a small matter in consequentia with regard to the fixed stars, and that in the sesquiplicate ratio of their respective distances from the

sun.

APHIS, in entomology, a genus of the Hemiptera "order, which has engaged the attention of naturalists for various reasons: their generation is equivocal, and their instinctive economy differs, in some respects, from that of most other animals. Linnæus defines the generic character of the aphis thus; beak inflected, sheath of five articulations, with a single bristle; antennæ setaceous, and longer than the thorax; either four erect wings, or none; feet formed for walking; posterior part of the abdomen usually furnished with two little horns. Geoffroy says, the aphides have two beaks, one of which is seated in the breast, the other in the head; this last extends to, and is laid upon the base of the pectoral one, and serves, as that writer imagines, to convey to the head a part of that nourishment which the insect takes, or sucks in, by means of the pectoral beak. Gmelin enumerates about 70 species, all of which, and doubtless many others, are found in different parts of Europe. They infest an endless variety of plants; and it is believed each species is particularly attached to one kind of vegetable only; hence each sort has been hitherto uniformly named after the individual species or genus of plants on which it feeds; or if that could not be ascertained, that on which it had been found; for some species are rather uncommon and little known, though others are infinitely too numerous. The aphides are sufficienly knowu by the indiscrimate term of plant-lice; they abound with a sweet and grateful moisture, and are therefore eagerly devoured by ants,

the larva of coccinella, and many other creatures, or they would become, very probably, more destructive to the whole vegeta. ble creation than any other race of insects known. If Bonnet was not the first naturalist (as is generally acknowledged) who discovered the mysterious course of generation in the aphides, or, as he calls them, pucerons, his experiments, together with those of his countryman, Trembly, tended at least to confirm, in a most satisfactory manner, the almost incredible circumstances respecting it, that an aphis or puceron, brought up in the most perfect solitude from the moment of its birth, in a few days will be found in the midst of a numerous family; and that if the experiment be again repeated on one of the individuals of this family, a second generation will multiply like its parent; and the like experiment may be many times repeated with the same effect.

The history of aphides has also been very copiously treated upon by Dr. Richardson, in a paper printed in the 41st vol. of the Philosophical Transactions; and by the late ingenious Mr. Curtis, in the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Linnæan Society. The tenor of Dr. Richardson's remarks is briefly this: the great variety of species which occur in the insects now under consideration may make an inquiry into their particular natures seem not a little perplexing, but by reducing them under their proper genus, the difficulty is considerably diminished. We may reasonably suppose all the insects, comprehended under any distinct genus, to partake of one general nature; and by diligently examining any particular species, may thence gain some insight into the nature of all the rest. With this view, Dr. Richardson chose out of the various sorts of aphides the largest of those found on the rose-tree; not only as its size makes it more conspicuous, but there are few of so long duration. This sort appears early in the spring, and continues late in autumn, while several are limited to a much shorter term, in conformity to the different trees and plants whence they draw their nourishment. If, at the beginning of February, the weather happens to be so warm as to make the buds of the rose-tree swell and appear green, small aphides are frequently to be found on them, though not larger than the young ones in summer when first produced. It will be found, that those aphides which appear only in spring, proceed from small black oval eggs,

which were deposited on the last year's shoot; though when it happens that the nsects make too early an appearance, the greater part suffer from the sharp weather that usually succeeds, by which means the rose-trees are some years in a manner freed from them. The same kind of animal is then at one time of the year viviparous, and at another oviparous. These aphides which withstand the severity of the weather, seldom come to their full growth before the month of April, at which time they usually begin to breed, after twice casting off their exuvia, or outward covering. It appears that they are all females, which produce each of them a numerous progeny, and that without having intercourse with any male insect: they are viviparous, and, what is equally singular, they all come into the world backwards. When they first come from the parent, they are inveloped in a thin membrane, having in this situation the appearance of an oval egg; these egg-like appearances adhere by one extremity to the mother, while the young ones contained in them extend to the other, and by that means gradually draw the ruptured membrane over the head and body to the hind feet. During this operation, and for some time after, the fore part of the head adheres, by means of something that is glutinous, to the vent of the parent. Be ing thus suspended in the air, it soon frees itself from the membrane in which it was confined; and after its limbs are a little strengthened, is set down on some tender shoots, and is left to provide for itself. In the spring months, there appear on the rose-trees but two generations of aphides, including those which proceed immediately from the last year's eggs; the warmth of the summer adds so much to their fertility, that no less than five generations succeed one another in the interval. One is produced in May, which casts off its covering; while the months of June and July each supply two more, which cast off their coverings three or four times, according to the different warmth of the season. This frequent change of their outward coat is the more extraordinary, because it is repeated more often when the insects come the soonest to their growth, which sometimes happens in ten days, when they have had plenty of warmth and nourishment. Early in the month of June, some of the third gene ration, which were produced about the middle of May, after casting off the last covering, discover four erect wings, much longer

than their bodies; and the same is observable in all the succeeding generations which are produced during the summer months, but still without any diversity of sex: for some time before the aphides come to their full growth, it is easy to distinguish which will have wings, by a remarkable fullness of the breast, which in the others is hardly to be distinguished from the body. When the last covering is rejected, the wings which were before folded up in a very narrow compass, are gradually extended in a surprising manner, till their dimensions are at last very considerable. The increase of these insects in the summer-time is so very great, that by wounding and exhausting the tender shoots, they would frequently suppress all vegetation, had they not many enemies to restrain them. Notwithstanding these insects have a numerous tribe of enemies, they are not without their friends, if those may be considered as such who are officious in their attendance for the good things they expect to reap thereby. The ant and bee are of this kind, collecting the honey in which the aphides abound, but with this difference, that the ants are constant visitors, the bee only when flowers are scarce; the ants will suck in the honey, while the aphides are in the act of discharging it; the bees only collect it from the leaves on which it has fallen. In the autumn three more generations of aphides are produced, two of which generally make their appearance in the month of August, and the third before the middle of September. The two first differ in no respect from those which are found in summer, but the third differs greatly from all the rest. Though all the aphides which have hitherto appeared were female, in this generation several male insects are found, but not by any means so numerous as the females. The females have, at first, the same appearance as those of the former generations, but, in a few days, their colour changes from a green to a yellow, which is gradually converted into an orange before they come to their full growth; they differ, also, in another respect, from those which occur in summer, for all these yellow females are without wings. The male insects are, however, still more remarkable, their outward appearance readily distinguishing them from this and all other generations. When first produced they are not of a green colour like the rest, but of a reddish brown, and have afterwards a dark line along the back: they come to their full growth in about