GLOSSARY.

Aca'cia, a thorny tree. A genus of the family Legumino'sæ, and order Mimo'sæ. Many of the species yield gum.

Aç'id, a compound substance or fluid which unites with salifiable bases to form salts. For example, a compound of sulphur and oxygen, called sulphuric acid, unites with sodium, and forms a salt named sulphate of soda, or glauber salts. Acids turn vegetable blues to red.

Acid'ulous, sourish; having acid properties.
Affluent, a river flowing into another.

A'gua, the Spanish word for water.

Agulhas, pronounced a-gool'yas.

Al'ga, sea weeds. These are agamous plants, which live in the air, on the surface or at the bottom of fresh or salt water.

Alkali, a chemical term applied to the oxides of potassium, sodium, lithium, barium, strontium, and calcium. Alkalies turn vegetable blues to green.

Alkaline, having the properties of an alkali.

Aloe, the name of a genus of plants. The thickened juice of several of the species constitutes the medicinal gum aloes.

Alluvium, gravel, sand, mud, and other transported matter washed down by rivers and floods upon lands not permanently submerged beneath A deposit formed of matter transported by currents of water. Alpine, belonging or relating to the Alps.

water.

Aluminium, a metal that forms the basis of alum; of pure argil. Andromeda, a genus of the family of plants called Erica'ceæ, and type of the tribe Andromedas.

Animal'cule, a diminutive animal. A term used to designate animals so small that they cannot be seen without a microscope.

Annual, yearly. A plant which rises from the seed, reaches perfection, and perishes within a year, is termed an annual.

Aphelion, the point of a planet's orbit most distant from the sun.

A'queous rocks are those formed by deposits from water.

Arena'ceous, sandy; of the nature of sand.

Argentiferous, containing silver.

Argillaceous, of the nature of clay.

Articulata, animals having joints or articulations in their coverings. Asphaltum, bitumen. Anciently used as a cement. A black, brittle bitumen, found on the surface and banks of the Dead Sea.

A'toll, a chaplet or ring of coral enclosing a lagoon or portion of the . ocean in its centre.

Aurif'erous, gold-bearing, containing gold.

Azalea, a genus of plants.

A'zote, the chemical name for a gas, now called nitrogen, which will not support respiration nor combustion. It constitutes seventy-nine per cent. of the atmosphere, and enters into the composition of all animal matter, except fatty substances, and into a certain number of proximate vegetable principles.

Barometer, an instrument for measuring the weight of the air.

Basalt', a black or bluish-gray rock, harder than glass, very tenacious, and therefore difficult to break. It is uniform in appearance, although essentially composed of pyroxene and feldspar, with a large proportion of iron and titanium. Basalt is considered as a product of igneous formation.

Bitu'men, a combustible mineral, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and

oxygen.

Boulders, rounded masses of stone, lying upon the surface or loosely embedded in the soil.

Bran'chie, the gills of fishes. They are their breathing organs.

Breccia, a rock composed of an agglutination of angular fragments. Cactus, a spine plant. Name of a genus of the family of Cacta'ceæ, indigenous in Mexico.

Calcareous, belonging or relating to lime. Calcareous rocks are those of which lime forms the principal part.

Cal'cium, a metal which, united with oxygen, forms oxide of calcium, or lime.

Caloric, the principle or matter of heat, or the simple element of heat. Carbon, charcoal. A chemical element. The diamond is pure carbon. It is the basis of all varieties of mineral coal, and is one of the principal constituents of all organic bodies.

Carbonate, any compound of carbonic acid and a salifiable base, as carbonate of lime.

Carbonic acid, a compound of carbon and oxygen.

Carboniferous, coal-bearing; containing carbon. In geology, the term is applied to those strata which contain coal, and to the period when the coal measures were formed.

Carnivlora, an order of animals which subsist on flesh.

Ce'real, applied to grasses which produce the bread grains, as wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats, rice, &c.

Cereallia, a name of a tribe of grasses.

Chalk, earthy carbonate of lime.

Chlorine, a new name for oxymuriatic gas. It forms about sixty per cent. of common salt, and is a powerful agent in bleaching and disinfecting.

Chlorit'ic, belonging to chlorite, an earthy mineral found in the cavities of slate rocks.

Cirrus, a tendril; a kind of cloud.

Cir'ro-cumulus, a kind of cloud intermediate between the cirrus and

cumulus.

Cir'ro-stra'tus, a wave cloud, intermediate between the cirrus and stratus. Its mottled appearance suggests the idea of resemblance to the back of a mackerel.

Coal measures, the geological formation in which coal is found.

Conduct'or. Those substances which possess the property of transferring caloric, or heat, and electricity, are termed conductors.

Conferva, a tribe of plants of the Zoösper'mæ family. It includes many sea weeds.

Conglomerate, any rock composed of pebbles cemented together by another mineral substance, either calcareous, silicious, or argillaceous. Contour', the line that bounds, defines, or terminates a figure. Conifera, cone-bearing trees or plants, such as pines, fir trees, &c. Cordillera, (pron. kor-deel-ya'ra,) the Spanish word for chain. series of elevations linked together continuously, so that their length greatly exceeds their breadth.

A

Cra'ter, a great cup or bowl. The mouth of a volcano.

Cretaceous, relating to or of the nature of chalk.

Crustacea, a class of articulated animals, as the crab, lobster, &c. Cryptoga'mia, a class of plants which are propagated without apparent

seeds.

Cryptog'amous, belonging to the cryptogamia.

Culmina'tion, the highest point of altitude.

Cu'mulus, a form of cloud.

Cumulo-stratus, twain cloud; it partakes of the cumulus and stratus. Debris', wreck, ruins, remains. In geology the term is applied to large fragments, to distinguish them from detritus, or those which are pulverized.

Deciduous, a term applied to plants whose leaves fall off in autumn, to distinguish them from evergreens.

Declination of any celestial body is the angular distance of the body, north or south, from the equator.

Del'ta, the Greek letter A. The triangular deposits, shoals, or islands at the mouth of rivers, are called deltas.

Deposition, in geology, the falling to the bottom of matters suspended or dissolved in water.

Devonian system, so called because it is largely developed in Devonshire, England. It is the old red sandstone formation. It is composed at first of pudding stone, and then passes into sandstone, with which it alternates at different places.

Detritus, a geological term, applied to deposits composed of various substances which have been comminuted by attrition. Sand is the detritus of silicious rocks.

Dislocation, displacement. In geology, where strata or veins have been displaced from the position where first deposited or formed, they are said to be dislocated.

Dip, in geology, the direction or inclination of strata. "To take a dip," is to measure the degree that a stratum inclines from a horizontal line.

Disintegrate, to separate or break up a whole into parts.

Diurnal, daily; performed in a day.

Electricity, from the Greek electron, amber, the substance in which it was first observed.

Ellipse', an oval figure; the curve in which the planets perform their revolutions about the sun.

Endogenous, applied to plants whose stems increase from within.

Elocene, in geology, a name for the older tertiary formation, in which the first dawn of existing species appears.

Ethnography, the science which treats of the different natural races and families of men.

Exogenous, applied to plants which grow by successive external additions to their wood.

Fluorine, a chemical element in the form of a yellowish-brown gas. Folci, plural of focus, a hearth. In optics, the term denotes the point where the rays of light are concentrated by a lens.

Fossil, any organic body, or the traces of any organic body, whether animal or vegetable, which has been buried in the earth by natural

-causes.

Fossiliferous, fossil-bearing.

Fulcus, sea weed. A genus of aquatic plants