Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/204

 180 AGDE AGE assigned to it before it has attained its matu- rity. So soon as it does so, it sends forth a stem 40 feet in height, which puts out numer- ous branches, forming a cylindrical pyramid of Agave (American Aloe). perfect symmetry, each crowned with a cluster of greenish-yellow flowers, which continue in perfect bloom for several months. But at what- ever period of the plant's existence this occurs, it is never repeated ; as soon as the flowers fall, the plant withers and dies. The. natural habi- tat of the American aloe is the whole inter- tropical region of America, in which it flour- ishes from the sandy plains on the level of the sea to the table lands of the mountains, at a height of 9,000 to 10,000 feet. In England, the United States, and France, it is a tender greenhouse plant; but in Spain, Italy, Sicily, and the Barbary states, it is perfectly natural- ized. The American aloe is applied to many uses. From its sap, drawn from incisions in its stem, is made pulque, a fermented liquor highly esteemed by the Mexicans; and from that, again, is distilled an ardent and not dis- agreeable, although singularly deleterious spirit, known as vino mezcal. A coarse sort of thread is made from the fibres of the leaves, known as the pita flax. The dried flower stems consti- tute a thatch which is perfectly impervious to the heaviest rain. From an extract of the leaves balls are manufactured which can be made to lather with water like soap ; and from the centre of the stem, split longitudinally, a substitute is obtained for a hone or razor strop, which, owing to the particles of silica which form one of its constituents, has the property of speedily bringing steel to a fine edge. AGDE (anc. Agatha), a city of southern France, department of HeVault, 95 m. W. of Marseilles; pop. in 1866, 9,586. It lies a short distance from the Mediterranean, on the left bank of the river Hfirault, into which the Lan- guedoc canal (canal du Midi) flows at this point. The town is entirely built of basaltic lava from a neighboring mountain. It is the seat of con- siderable trade with Italy, Spain, and Africa. It was founded by the Greeks of Massilia (Mar- seilles) about 590 B. 0. Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, held a council here in 506. AGE, any particular period in the existence of organic beings, of collective humanity, of nations, or of the globe. The age of the world has been variously computed by geologists, but nothing positive is known of the real length of time allotted to each period, so strongly marked by changes in the structure of its crust, and in the forms of animals and plants which have left fossil traces of their existence. Many periods of inorganic change, and numerous mutations of animal and vegetable forms of life, are known to have occurred upon our globe before the slightest trace of man appears upon its crust ; and hence it is inferred that human life, com- pared with the inferior forms of animal and vegetable life, is of comparatively recent date. The age of the world, then, has two distinct bearings, one referring to the origin and growth of the earth in its cosmological and geological existence, the other to the origin and history of man and of society upon its surface. Certain periods remarkable for some particular devel- opment in the life and progress of the race, or of a nation, are distinguished by particular names, such as the golden age, the silver age, the copper or the brazen age, and the iron age of heathen mythology, the Augustan age of the Roman empire, the Elizabethan age of English history, and the age of steam and iron in the pro- gress of our own time. (See AGES.) The life of man has been divided into seven ages by Shake> speare, and into four, five, six, seven, or eight, by men of science. Some make four distinct periods only, such as infancy, youth, maturity, decline ; others follow more closely each physi- ological transition, and divide existence into infancy, childhood, boyhood or girlhood, ado- lescence, virility, maturity, decline, and old age or second childhood. The most natural divis- ions are those which distinguish the ascending, the culminating, and the declining periods of life. Each of these may be further subdivided according to physiological changes which mark the transitions from one period to another. Infancy, childhood, and boyhood or girlhood mark the first stage of ascending progress from birth to puberty ; youth, adolescence, and man- hood or womanhood mark the second stage of ascent in the growth and evolution of the powers of life ; virility may be applied to th culminating period ; and the descending stage* of maturity and decline might well be subdi- vided into lesser and marked periods of transi- tion, as are the two ascending stages. Infancy applies to the first two years of life, during which the first complete set of teeth is devel- oped ; childhood to the age, between 2 and 7 or 8, when the first teeth are shed, and a more complete set replaces them ; boyhood and girl- hood from 7 to 14 or 15, the average time of