Argemone (a˙r-jem´o-nē), a small genus of ornamental American plants of the poppy order. From the seeds of A. mexicāna is obtained an oil very useful to painters. The handsomest species is A. grandiflōra, which has large flowers of a pure white colour.
Argensola (a˙r-hen-sō´la˙), Lupercio and Bartolomé Leonardo de, brothers, born at Barbastro, in Aragon, the former in 1565, died in 1613; the latter born in 1566, died in 1631. Lupercio produced tragedies and lyric poems; Bartolomé a number of poems and a historical work, The Conquest of the Moluccas. Their writings are singularly alike in character, and are reckoned among the Spanish classics. The tragedies are of the heavy Senecan type, but the satirical writings of both brothers are full of pungent wit of a pleasing kind.
Argenson (a˙r-zha˙n˙-sōn˙), Marc Pierre de Voyer, Comte d', celebrated French statesman, born in 1696, died 1764. After holding a number of subordinate offices he became minister for foreign affairs, and succeeded in bringing about the Congress of Breda, which was the prelude to that of Aix-la-Chapelle. He was present at the battle of Fontenoy, and was exiled to his estate for some years through the machinations of Madame Pompadour. His Considérations sur le Gouvernement de la France was a very advanced study on the possibility of combining with a monarchic form of government democratic principles and local self-government. Les Essais, ou Loisirs d'un Ministre d'État, published in 1785, is a collection of characters and anecdotes in the style of Montaigne.
Ar´gent, in coats of arms, the heraldic term expressing silver: represented in engraving by a plain white surface.
Argentan (a˙r-zha˙n˙-tän˙), a French town, department of Orne (Normandy), with an old castle and some manufactures. Pop. 6300.
Argenteuil (a˙r-zha˙n˙-teu-yė), a town in France, department Seine-et-Oise, 7 miles below Paris; it has an active trade in wine, fruit, and vegetables. Pop. 24,282.
Argentie´ra, or Kimōli (ancient, Cimōlus), an island in the Grecian Archipelago, one of the Cyclades, about 18 miles in circumference, rocky and sterile. It produces a detergent chalk called Cimolian earth (q.v.), used in washing and bleaching. Pop. 1337.
Ar´gentine, a silvery-white slaty variety of calc-spar, containing a little silica with laminæ usually undulated. It is found in primitive rocks and frequently in metallic veins.—Argentine is also the name of a small British fish (Scopĕlus boreālis) less than 2 inches long and of a silvery colour.
Ar´gentine Republic, formerly called the United Provinces of La Plata, a vast country of South America, the extreme length of which is 2300 miles, and the average breadth a little over 500 miles, the total area 1,153,119 sq. miles. It consists of fourteen provinces, ten territories, and one federal district. It is bounded on the N. by Bolivia; on the E. by Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic; on the S. by the Antarctic Ocean; and on the W. by the Andes. It comprises four great natural divisions: (1) the Andine region, containing the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy; (2) the Pampas, containing the provinces of Santiago, Santa Fé, Cordova, San Luis, and Buenos Ayres, with the territories Formosa, Pampa, and Chaco; (3) the Argentine 'mesopotamia', between the Rivers Paraná and Uruguay, containing the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes, and the territory Misiones; (4) Patagonia, including the eastern half of Tierra del Fuego. With the exception of the N.W., where lateral branches of the Andes run into the
plain for 150 or 200 miles, and the province of Entre Rios, which is hilly, the characteristic feature of the country is the great monotonous and level plains called 'pampas'. In the north these plains are partly forest-covered, but all the central and southern parts present vast treeless tracts, which afford pasture to immense herds of horses, oxen, and sheep, and are varied in some places by brackish swamps, in others by salt steppes. The great water-course of the country is the Paraná, having a length of fully 2000 miles from its source in the mountains of Goyaz, Brazil, to its junction with the Uruguay, where begins the estuary of La Plata. The Paraná is formed by the union of the Upper Paraná and Paraguay Rivers, near the N.E. corner of the State. Important tributaries are the Pilcomayo, the Vermejo, and the Salado. The Paraná, Paraguay, and Uruguay are valuable for internal navigation. Many of the streams which tend eastward terminate in marshes and salt lakes, some of which are rather extensive. Not connected with the La Plata system are the Colorado and the Rio Negro, the latter formerly the southern boundary of the State, separating it from Patagonia. The source of the Negro is Lake Nahuel Huapi, in Patagonia (area, 1200 sq. miles), in the midst of magnificent scenery. The level portions of the country are mostly of tertiary formation, and the river and coast regions consist mainly of alluvial soil of great fertility. In the pampas clay have been found the fossil remains of extinct mammalia, some of them of colossal size.