ALEXANDRIAN LAUREL. See Ruscus racemosus.
ALGAROBA BEAN, or CAROB. See Ceratonia.
ALGAROBIA. Included under Prosopis (which see).
ALHAGI (its Arabian name). ORD. Leguminosæ. Manna Tree. Greenhouse shrubs or sub-shrubs, with simple leaves, and minute stipulas. Flowers few, in clusters. They thrive in pots filled with a mixture of sand, loam, and peat. Young cuttings will root in sand, with a bell glass placed over them, in heat; but by seeds, if they can be procured, sown in a hotbed, is a preferable mode of increasing the plants. They may be placed out of doors during the summer months.
A. camelorum (camels). fl. red, few, disposed in racemes along the peduncles. July. l. lanceolate, obtuse, simple; stipulas minute. Stem herbaceous. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Caucasus, 1816.
A. maurorum (Moors'). fl. purple in the middle, and reddish about the edges, disposed in racemes along the axillary, spinose peduncles. July. l. obovate-oblong, simple; spines strong, and longer than those of the above species. h. 2ft. to 3ft. Egypt, &c. The Manna is a natural exudation from the branches and leaves of this shrub, which takes place only in very hot weather.
ALIBERTIA (in honour of M. Alibert, a celebrated French chemist, author of "Traite des Fievres Attaxiques," wherein he mentions the effects of Peruvian bark). ORD. Cinchonaceæ. A small stove evergreen tree, very ornamental when in flower. Flowers solitary or fascicled, diœcious; corolla leathery, tubular. A mixture of loam and peat is the best soil. Cuttings strike root freely, in a similar kind of soil, under a hand glass, in a moist heat.
A. edulis (edible). fl. cream-coloured, solitary or in fascicles, terminating the branches, almost sessile. June. fr. edible. l. opposite, leathery, oblong, acuminated, shining above, and bearded in the axils of the veins beneath. h. 12ft. Guiana, 1823.
ALICANT SODA. See Salsola.
ALISMA. (from alis, the Celtic word for water). Water Plantain. SYN. Actinocarpus. ORD. Alismaceæ. A genus entirely composed of hardy aquatic species. Flowers three-petalled. Leaves parallel-veined. Increased by division or seeds. The latter should be sown in a pot immersed in water, filled with loam, peat, and sand, and the former root freely in a moist loamy soil. The British species are most easily grown.
