Apocar´pous, in botany, a term applied to such fruits as are the produce of a single flower, and are formed of one carpel, or a number of carpels free and separate from each other.
Apoc´rypha (Gr., 'things concealed or spurious'), a term applied in the earliest churches to various sacred or professedly inspired writings, sometimes given to those whose authors were unknown, sometimes to those with a hidden meaning, and sometimes to those considered objectionable. The term is specially applied to the fourteen undermentioned books, which were written during the two centuries preceding the birth of Christ. They were written, not in Hebrew, but in Greek, and the Jews never allowed them a place in their sacred canon. They were incorporated into the Septuagint, and thence passed to the Vulgate. The Greek Church excluded them from the canon in 360 at the Council of Laodicea. The Latin Church treated them with more favour, but it was not until 1546 that they were formally admitted into the canon of the Church of Rome by a decree of the Council of Trent. The Anglican Church says they may be read for example of life and instruction of manners, but that the Church does not apply them to establish any doctrine. All other Protestant churches in Britain and America ignore them. The following fourteen books form the Apocrypha of the English Bible: The first and second Books of Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the rest of the Book of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch the Prophet, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna and the Elders, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the first and second Books of Maccabees. Besides the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament there are many spurious books composed in the earlier ages of Christianity, and published under the names of Christ and his apostles, or of such immediate followers as from their character or means of intimate knowledge might give an apparent plausibility to such forgeries. These writings comprise: 1st, the Apocryphal Gospels, which treat of the history of Joseph and the Virgin before the birth of Christ, of the infancy of Jesus, and of the acts of Pilate; 2nd, the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles; and 3rd, the Apocryphal Apocalypses, none of which have obtained canonical recognition by any of the churches.—Bibliography: Wace, The Apocrypha; Porter, in Hastings' Bible Dict., i, pp. 111-23; W. D. F. Oesterley, Book of the Apocrypha; R. H. Charles, Religious Development between the Old and the New Testaments.
Apocyna´ceæ, a nat. ord. of dicotyledonous plants, having for its type the genus Apocўnum or dog-bane. The species have opposite or sometimes whorled leaves without stipules; the corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, and with the stamens inserted upon it; fruit two-celled. The plants yield a milky juice, which is generally poisonous; several yield caoutchouc, and a few edible fruits. The bark of several species is a powerful febrifuge. To the order belongs the periwinkle (Vinca). See Cow-tree, Periwinkle, Oleander, Tanghin.
Ap´oda. See Proteolepadidæ.
Ap´odal Fishes, the name applied to such malacopterous fishes as want ventral fins. They constitute a small natural family, of which the common eel is an example.
Apo´dösis, in grammar, the latter member of a conditional sentence (or one beginning with if, though, &c.) dependent on the condition or protăsis; as, if it rain (protasis) I shall not go (apodosis).
Ap´ogee (-jē; Gr. apo, from, and gē, the earth), that point in the orbit of the moon or a planet where it is at its greatest distance from the earth; also the greatest distance of the sun from the earth when the latter is in aphelion.
Apol´da, a town of Germany, in Saxe-Weimar, at which woollen goods are extensively manufactured. Pop. 22,610.
Apollina´rians, a sect of Christians who maintained the doctrine that Christ had a human body and a human sensitive soul, but no human rational mind, the Divine Logos (the Word) taking the place of the mind, and that God was consequently united in him with the human body and the sensitive soul. Apollinaris, the author of this opinion, was, from A.D. 362 till at least A.D. 382, Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, and a zealous opposer of the Arians. As a man and a scholar he was highly esteemed, and was among the most popular authors of his time. He formed a congregation of his adherents at Antioch, and made Vitalis their bishop. The Apollinarians, or Vitalians, as their followers were called, soon spread their settlements in Syria and the neighbouring countries, established several societies, with their own bishops, and one even in Constantinople; but many adherents drifted away to Monophysitism, and the sect soon became extinct.
Apollina´ris Water, a natural aerated water, belonging to the class of acidulated soda waters, and derived from the Apollinarisbrunnen, a spring in the valley of the Ahr, near the Rhine, in Rhenish Prussia, forming a highly-esteemed beverage.