tian brethren, and founded what they called the Academy | Royal Hibernian Academy. An Academy of Ancient of St. Luke. This establishment was formally recognized Music was established in London so early as the year 1710; by Charles VII. in 1430; and the privileges which he con- but a disagreement among its members occasioned its dissoferred upon it were confirmed by Henry III. in 1584. In lution after it had existed above twenty years. Some time 1613 the Academy of St. Luke formed a union with the after this the Royal Academy of Music was instituted, with Society of Sculptors; and the institution subsisted till the Handel at its head, and for ten years, during which the Revolution. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, operas of that great composer were performed under its however, it had been thrown into the shade by a new asso- superintendence in the Haymarket Theatre, enjoyed splenciation, founded by Lebrun, Corneille, and several others of did success. But discord here also came at length to divide the painters licensed by the king. A royal edict, in favour and disperse the professors of harmony; and in the year of this association, was issued in the beginning of the year 1729 the institution was broken up. A new Royal Aca1648; and in 1655 letters-patent were granted to it by Car- demy of Music, which holds its meetings in a hall in Tendinal Mazarin. Some time after, it was allowed a hall in terden-street, was established in 1822. The French Opera, the Louvre; and, finally, in 1663, during the administra- it may be added, is styled the Académie de Musique. tion of Colbert, there was settled upon it a revenue of 4000 ACA'DIA, by the French called ACADIE, is the gelivres annually. In 1671, an Academy of Architecture was nuine Indian name of the present province of Nova Scotia. established by the same minister. These two establishments The chief river of Nova Scotia is still called Shuben-Acadie, were abolished with the other academies at the Revolution; or the river of Acadie. [See NOVA SCOTIA.] but they have since been revived, and now form together ACALE'PHE, a Greek word, signifying nettles. These the fourth division of the Institute, under the name of the animals form the third class of Baron Cuvier's zoophytes. Académie des Beaux Arts. It consists of forty-one mem- Many of them are popularly named sea-nettles, from their bers, eight associates, and six corresponding members. A causing, when touched, a disagreeable sensation similar to branch of this academy still subsists at Rome, which was the sting o. a nettle. Their form is always circular and established in 1666 by Louis XIV., with a revenue of 35,000 radiated. There is only one opening into the body, which livres. There are also Academies of the Fine Arts in many serves both for the mouth and the vent, and a single cavity of the chief provincial towns of France. Of the Italian which is at once gullet, stomach, and intestines; so that academies of this description, that of San Luca at Rome was some writers have represented them as being all stomach established in 1593, by the eminent painter Frederic Zucchero, who erected an elegant building for it at his own expense. There are others at Milan, Bologna, Parma, and many of the other principal towns. The oldest German Academy of the Fine Arts is that of Nuremberg, founded by Joachim Sandrart, an artist of great ability, in 1662. That of Dresden was established in 1697, and was united with those of Leipzick and Meissen in 1764, when it received the form which it still retains. There are others at Berlin, at Vienna, at Munich, at Weimar, and in various other cities. In Spain an Academy of Painting and Sculpture was established at Madrid in 1753. At Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels, there are similar institutions. The Academy of the Fine Arts at Stockholm was established, in 1733, principally by the exertions of the celebrated Charles Gustavus, Count de Tessin; and that of Copenhagen in 1738, though it was not incorporated till 1754. To this institution the famous sculptor Thorwaldsen was indebted for his early education. The Académie Imperiale des Beaux Arts of Petersburgh was founded in 1765 by the Empress Catherine II., who endowed it with a considerable revenue. It consists of six professors of painting, sculpture, and architecture, with an adjunct, or assistant, to each, twentyfour honorary members, six councillors, a president, three rectors, and three adjuncts to the rectors. This institution has greatly contributed to the introduction and dissemination of a taste for the arts in Russia, by the pupils whom it has sent out and supported during their studies in foreign countries. A letter, printed by Steele in the 555th No. of the Spectator (the last of the original series), speaks of an Academy of Painting, then (1712) lately established in London. Sir Godfrey Kneller is mentioned as its president. This institution, however, probably soon fell into decay. The present Royal Academy originated in an association of painters, who obtained a charter, in 1765, under the title of the Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain. This society, however, was soon after broken up by disputes among its members; and in 1768 the Royal Academy of Arts was incorporated in its stead. It consists of forty artists bearing the title of academicians, of eighteen associates, of six associate engravers, and of three or four individuals of distinction, under the name of honorary members. From the academicians are selected the professors of painting, of sculpture, of architecture, and of perspective; and there is also a professor of anatomy, who is commonly a member of the medical profession. Nine of the academicians are likewise appointed annually to officiate in setting the models, and otherwise superintending the progress of the students. The king is the patron of this institution; but its funds are, we believe, entirely derived from the money paid by the public for admission to the exhibition, which takes place every year, in the months of May and June. A branch of the English Royal Academy was established some years ago at Rome. The Edinburgh Royal Academy of Painting was founded in 1754. A similar institution has recently been established in Dublin, under the title of the

FIXED ACAL.-Alcyonium mammillosum (ELLIS).

Actinia sociata (ELLIS).

FREE ACALEPHA-Rhizostoma cerulea (CUVIER).

VOL. I.-K

These animals have been arranged in three orders-1. fixed, 2. free, and 3. hydrostatic.

I. The fixed (Acalephæ stabiles) can at pleasure either attach themselves to stones or other objects in the sea, or creep and swim about on the waves. The Actinic or sea anemones, the Zoantha, and the Lucernaria, belong to this order. II. The free (Acalephæ libera) are not found attached to any object, but always floating about in the water. The Medusa belong to this order.

III. The hydrostatic (Acalephæ hydrostatica) are thus named on account of one or more air-vessels, by means of which the animals can raise or sink themselves in the water. Their mouths have not been discovered. The order comprehends the Physalia and the Physophora.

In the last edition of the Règne Animale, Cuvier makes only two orders-1. The simple (Acalephæ simplices); and, 2. The hydrostatic.

M. Eschholtz, of Berlin, has recently published an excellent work on these animals, of which we shall take advantage in describing the several orders.

they only differ in the general form or outline of the cranium, and the comparative developement of the bones of the face and skull; characters which have no very assignable influence upon the habits and economy of animal life, and which will, probably, be merged in others of greater importance, when we come to be better acquainted with the species in question. Indeed we have introduced the present article principally for the purpose of attracting the attention of travellers and residents in our Indian Colonies; many of whom have daily opportunities of elucidating this and other obscure subjects in zoology, and only require to be informed of its wants to render the most essential service to the science.

Fig. 1.

ACANTHA'CEÆ, a tribe of plants forming one of the natural orders in the Monopetalous division of Dicotyledonous or Exogenous Vegetation. (See DICOTYLEDONES and EXOGENE.) Its name is derived from the genus Acanthus, which has been considered characteristic of the whole tribe. The plants of which it is composed are either altogether of an herbaceous nature, or shrubby in a slight degreeing this inquiry, we have engraved (fig. 1) the skull of a species To guide observers who may have an opportunity of pursuonly; they are extremely common in every tropical of porcupine sent from Java by the French traveller, Duvancountry, where they may be considered to occupy the place celle, and figured by M. F. Cuvier, in the ninth volume of of the mints, dead-nettles, thymes, and sages of Europe; the Mémoires du Museum, as the type of his genus Acanthion. a few only are found beyond the limits of the tropics. Many of the species are mere weeds; others bear handsome flowers with gaudy colours, but seldom with any odour; a very small number has been occasionally employed medicinally as emollients or diuretics.

The roots of Acanthacea are either annual or perennial. The stems are usually four-cornered when young, but afterwards become nearly round; their inside is occupied by a large proportion of pith, which is enclosed in a thin layer of

5

Fig. 2.

[Analysis of Acanthacem.]

3

imperfectly formed wood; and at each joint there is a slight tumour with an articulation, by which they are readily known from both Scrophularines and Verbenacea. Their flowers are often inclosed within large, leafy, imbricated bractea (1). The calyx (2) is usually composed of either four or five parts, which overlap each other, and occasionally grow together at the base. The corolla (3) is monopetalous and irregular. The stamens (4) are either two, or four, but in the latter case are of unequal lengths. The pistillum (6) is superior and turcilled. The seed-vessel (5) contains two cells, which burst when ripe, often with elasticity, and expose a few roundish seeds hanging to the cells by curious-hooked processes.

The stems of all the species emit roots very readily from their tumid articulations; on which account gardeners universally increase them by cuttings of the full-grown branches. They are always easy to cultivate, provided they are not kept in too cold or too dry a situation. The annual kinds freely produce seeds, by which they are readily multiplied.

The most common genera are Justicia, Acanthus, Ruellia, Thunbergia, Barleria, and Eranthemum, which see.

For further information, see Brown's Prodromus Flora Nova Hollandia-Bartling's Ordines Naturales-Lindley's Introduction to the Natural System-and, above all, Nees v. Esenbeck's Exposition, in the third volume of Dr. Wallich's Plante Asiaticæ rariores.

ACA'NTHION, in Zoology, a genus of Rodentia, established by M. F. Cuvier, and embracing two species, which are only known, at present, by their osteology. In the number and form of their teeth, these animals agree in all respects with the common porcupine, from which, indeed,

Fig. 2. represents the skull of the common Italian porcupine, for the purpose of comparison. The principal differences which these skulls present, when compared with one another, consist in the surface of the forehead being nearly flat in the acanthion, instead of forming a spherical elevation as in the porcupine; and in the nasal bones being of much smaller dimensions in the former than in the latter animal. The sense of smell would thus appear to be less acute in the Javanese porcupine than in that of Europe and Africa; but it has the region of the brain comparatively larger. M. Cuvier reckons two species:

1. The Acanthion Javanicum, founded upon the skull already mentioned, as having been sent from Java by M. Duvancelle. This is, probably, the Babi-landak, mentioned in Marsden's History of Sumatra, and which that author identifies with the Hystrix Macroura of Linnæus, a species equally obscure. This animal is represented as having five toes on each foot, the body covered with weak spines, and a long tail, terminating in a thick tuft, of which the spines are knotted, and spring out of one another like grains of rice.

2. The Acanthion Daubentonii, founded upon a skeleton formerly described by Daubenton, but which he mistook for that of the common porcupine. The locality from which this skeleton was obtained is not exactly known; but there is reason to believe that it was brought from some part of Africa. It may, perhaps, belong to the fasciculated porcupine, which has been lately found to inhabit the Island of Fernando Po; and which, to judge from the external appearance of the living specimen formerly possessed by the Zoological Society, appears to have all the characteristic marks which M. F. Cuvier assigns to the genus Acanthion.

It may be observed, in conclusion, that, besides the common porcupine (which inhabits every part of the Indian Continent, as well as Africa and the South of Europe), the large islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, the Malayan Peninsula, and probably other parts of Eastern Asia, contain three or four different but closely allied species, of which we have, at present, but a very vague and confused account,

that the depth of the body, measured from the dorsal to the pectoral fins, is always equal to, and often exceeds, its length from head to tail;-by their trenchant teeth, denticulated like a very fine comb; but above all, by the moveable spines, edged and sharp like a lancet, with which they are armed on each side of the tail, and with which they inflict dangerous wounds upon the hands of those

who touch them incautiously. It is this circumstance that has acquired for the Acanthuri the name of Doctors,' by which they are well known to the English sailors and colonists. These animals have the mouth small, and the muzzle rather advanced: they are among the small number of fishes which live entirely upon vegetable substances, feeding only upon algæ, fuci, and other marine plants; their intestinal canal is, consequently, longer and more complicated than in other species, and their flesh has a peculiar flavour, very different from that of the piscivorous genera. The dangerous weapons with which Nature has provided these otherwise harmless fishes, are well calculated to defend them from the attacks of the ravenous enemies which every where surround them. As they are not obliged to resort to rapine for procuring food, they are by nature inclined to peace, and never voluntarily commence an attack; but they defend themselves with courage and success against the largest of their assailants. Their lancets, also, are placed in the very situation in which, above all others, they are most efficient and dangerous; not only because the greatest strength of fishes lies in the tail, but likewise because it is in this quarter that their enemies are at once most likely to make, the attack, and least prepared to expect resistance. The acanthures abound in all the tropical seas, both of the East and West Indies; they are never known to advance beyond the tropics, and are, consequently, unknown in the more temperate latitudes.

ACANTHUS (in Architecture). The name by which the broad raffled leaf used in the enrichment of the Corin thian capital is known. It is thus called because of its general resemblance to the leaves of a species of the acanthus plant; or rather because of a pretty traditional story which the Roman author Vitruvius tells of the fancied origin of the Corinthian capital, in which the leaves are said to be imitated from those of the acanthus. (See CAPITAL, CORINTHIAN.) The same leaf, however, is commonly used in architectural and sculptural enrichments generally; in the enrichment of modillions, of mouldings, and of vases, as well as of foliated capitals; and we gather from Virgil, that the acanthus was by the ancients also employed as an ornament in embroidery. In the first book of the Eneid, verse 649, and again at 711, a veil or vest is said to be interwoven or embroidered with the crocus-coloured or saffron acanthus. Indeed, it appears to have been a great favourite with that poet himself, both as a plant and as an ornament in works of art. Speaking of the most delightful trees and shrubs for a garden for bees, in the fourth book of the Georgics, verses 122 and 123, he says, nor could I have passed over in silence the late-blooming narcissus, or the twig of the flexible acanthus; and in the third eclogue of the Bucolics, verse 45, he describes two beautiful beechen cups, on which was carved the scene of Orpheus enchanting the trees, with the soft acanthus folded round the handles. The application of the brank-ursine acanthus (see next article) to sculptural enrichment is further illustrated in the following passages:-Theocritus, describing a cup of tolian manufacture, says, 'the pliant acanthus is expanded all round the cup;' and Ovid (Met. 13. v. 701.) represents a

vase of bronze as being adorned on the outside with a mythological story, and the border above this figured portion as covered with acanthus leaves wrought in gold. Now of these two modes of applying it, as well as of that described by Virgil in his third eclogue, we have very many instances in ancient vases still extant.

Athenæus relates that, in the splendid procession ordained to convey the corpse of Alexander the Great to its final destination in Egypt, the coffin was placed in a car, which was adorned with a small colonnade of golden pillars, and a golden acanthus was set at intervals between the columns.

Pliny the elder, in his Natural History, describes the acanthus in such a manner that it can only be recognized in the brank-ursine; and his nephew, in speaking of the successful cultivation of the same plant as an ornament to his garden, leaves no doubt that the brank-ursine is identical with the common architectural and sculptural acanthus. This ornament, in the ancient Greek and Roman models, is very characteristic of the styles of architectural enrichment of those nations; in the Roman it is full and somewhat luxuriant, and in the Greek more restrained, but simple and graceful.

Greek

ACAN'THUS. Under this classical name have been described, by ancient authors, at least three totally different plants. Firstly, a prickly tree with smooth evergreen leaves, and snall round saffron-coloured berries, frequently alluded to by Virgil; this is conjectured to have been the Holly. Secondly, a prickly Egyptian tree, described by Theophrastus as having pods like those of a bean; it is probable that this was the Acacia Arabica (see ACACIA). Thirdly, a herb mentioned by Dioscorides, with broad, prickly leaves, which perish at the approach of winter, and again sprout forth with the return of spring. It is said that the idea of the Corinthian capital of Greek columns was taken from some of the leaves of this acanthus. To this latter plant the name is now applied. The word, in all cases, alludes to the prickly nature of the leaves or stems.

In modern botany, Acanthus is a genus of herbaceous plants found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and India, belonging to the natural order Acanthacea.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx in four divisions, of which the upper and lower are much larger than the other two. Corolla one-sided, with three lobes; no trace of an upper lip to be found.

Stamens four, in two lengths; anthers never containing more than one cell, fringed, the upper ones erect, the lower horizontal.

Seed-vessel two-celled, compressed, four-seeded, with sides of the texture of paper.

Flowers growing in a terminal leafless spike, having at their base three floral leaves, of which the intermediate one is fringed with bristles.

The commonest species is Acanthus mollis, or Brankursine, a native of many parts of the South of Europe, growing in shady moist places, among bushes. Its stem is about two feet high, and is covered from the middle to the top with fine large white flowers, slightly tinged with yellow. The leaves are large, soft, deeply cut, hairy, and shining, and surround the lower part only of the stem. Both the leaves and the roots, which are perennial, abound in mucilage, which has caused them to be substituted in domestic medicine for the marsh-mallow. It is this species which is usually supposed to have given rise to the notion of the Grecian capital. But it appears, from the investigation of Dr. Sibthorp, that it is no where to be found, either in the Greek islands, or in any part of the Peloponnesus; and that the plant which Dioscorides must have meant was