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ALMERIA Vicente" (1838); "O Arco de Sant' Anna" (1846); "Romancerio" (3 vols., 1851-1853). He died in Lisbon, Dec. 10. 1854.

ALMERIA (al-mā-rē´a), a fortified seaport of southern Spain, capital of the province of Almeria, near the mouth of a river and on the gulf of the same name, with no buildings of consequence except a Gothic cathedral, but with an important trade, exporting lead, esparto, barilla, etc. The province, which has an area of 3,300 square miles, is generally mountainous. Pop. (1917), province, 393,680; town, 48,614.

ALMOND, the fruit of the almond tree. It is a slight ovate drupe, externally downy. There are two varieties of it, the one sweet and the other bitter. Sweet almonds are eaten. Bitter almonds contain prussic acid, and, eaten in large quantities, are poisonous.

Also, the tree on which the fruit described grows, the amygdalus communis, of which there are two varieties, the amygdalus communis, simply so termed, and the amygdalus communa, variety amara, or bitter almond. The former has pink and the latter white flowers. Both varieties are found in the south of Europe, the sweet one being the more common. They seem to have come originally from Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, and the north of Africa.

In anatomy, the almonds of the throat, or tonsils, are two round glands placed at the base of the tongue on either side.

ALMOND-OIL, BITTER ALMOND-OIL, or BENZOIC ALDEHYDE, in chemistry, an oil obtained by pressing almonds. The oil of bitter almonds, at least when impure, is very poisonous. It has, however, been used as a cure in intermittent fever.

ALMONTE, JUAN NEPOMUCENO (al-môn´te), a Mexican general, born in 1804. As a boy he took part in the war for independence. In 1824, he went to London as attaché to the Mexican embassy, and, after his return, became a member of Congress. In 1832 he was appointed chargé d'affaires at London, then in Peru. He entered the army and served under Santa Anna in Texas in 1836. After that he became Minister of War under Bustamente, and, in 1841, was sent to Washington. In 1845 he became Minister of War, and was a second time sent as minister to the United States, soon afterward. He took part in the battles of Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo in 1847. In 1853 he was again sent to Washington, and, in 1857, to Paris. In 1861, when Juarez attained power, he deposed Almonte, who. led by ambition, invited the French expedition to Mexico. In 1862 he joined the French troops of occupation at Vera Cruz; but, as the Mexicans saw in him only a tool of the French plans, they renounced the idea of making him French dictator. The French general, himself, deprived him of power, but when, on the 10th of June, 1863, he reached the City of Mexico with the French, he was placed by the conquerors at the head of the Regency of the Mexican Empire. The Emperor Maximilian appointed him field-marshal, but, after Maximilian's death, he fled to Europe, and died in Paris, March 22, 1869.

ALMS, pity, mercy; charity, from eleeo, to have pity; eleos, pity. Thus, alms in English, when traced to its origin, is really the Greek word eleemosyne corrupted.

In ordinary language, money, food, clothing, or anything else given as a gratuity to relieve the poor.

In law, reasonable alms are a certain portion of the estates of intestate persons allotted to the poor.

A tenure by free alms, or frank almoyne, is a tenure of property which is liable to no rent or service. The term is especially applied to lands or other property left to churches or religious houses on condition of praying for the soul of the donor. In the United States churches, schools and charitable institutions are free from taxation.

ALMUCANTAR, ALMUCANTER, ALMACANTER, or ALMOCANTAR, a circle drawn parallel to the horizon; generally used in the plural for a series of parallel circles drawn through the several degrees of the meridian. They are the same as what are now called parallels of altitude.

ALNUS, a genus of plants belonging to the order betulaceæ (birch-worts). The flowers are monœceous and amentaceous. In the barren ones the scale of the catkin is three-lobed, with three flowers; the perianth is four partite; the stamina, four. In those which are fertile the scale of the catkin is subtrifid with three flowers, and there is no perianth. The ovary is two-celled, two-ovuled, but only one ovule reaches perfection.

ALOE, any species of the genus described under botany (below), or even of one, such as agave, with a close analogy to it. The American aloe is the agave americana, an amaryllid.

In botany, a genus of plants belonging to the order liliaceæ, or lily-worts, and constituting the typical genus of the sec-