Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/400

 376 AMALIE J862, after the deposition of her husband, she went with him to Bavaria, and since his death (July 26, 1867) has resided at Bamberg. Her sister married in 1855 Maximilian de Washing- ton, a Bavarian baron, a descendant of the English Washington family, resident in Styria. AMALIE, Marie Friederike August*, duchess, a German dramatist, eldest sister of King John of Saxony, born in Dresden, Aug. 10, 1794, died in the palace of Pillnitz, Sept. 18, 1870. She wrote two dramas under the name of Ama- lie Herter (Dresden, 1829-'30). Among her subsequent productions, which are noted for a love of humanity and virtue, her comedies Der Onkel and Die Fiirstenbraut became very pop- ular. The latter was performed in Paris under the title Unefemme charmante (1840). Others of her plays were also adapted to the French stage. A complete edition of her dramatic works was published in Dresden, for the bene- fit of the women's association, under the title of Originalbeitrdge zur deutechen Schaubuhne (6 vols., 1837-'42). A 3d edition of the 1st volume appeared in 1858, and a French version of it (Comediex) at Paris in 1841. Six of her dramas were translated into English by Jame- son (London, 1846), and six others anonymously (1848). She composed operas and sacred music. A M U.S. or iali, the name of the royal fam- ily of the Goths. Of this family were all the sovereigns of this nation until the division into Ostrogoths and Visigoths. After that event the Ostrogothic kings were Amals until the extinction of the mule line in Theodoric the Great. According to the legendary chronol- ogy recorded by Jornandes, the Gothic bishop and chronicler Amal, or Amala, who gave the name to the family, was the fourth descendant of Gapt, the first Gothic king. Amal is sup- posed to have signified spotless. AMALTHJ3A, in Greek mythology, the nurse of the infant Zeus. She is commonly supposed to have been a goat, who, with her two young ones, was translated to the skies, where all three were metamorphosed into stas by the father of the gods. Zeus, according to one of the various myths on ^he subject, broke off 1 one of the horns of the goat Amalthaea, and pre- sented it to the daughters of Melisseus, king of Crete. This horn was endowed with such miraculous power that whenever the possessor wished, it would instantly become filled with whatever might be desired. AMAATS, the ancient name of a mountain range, a branch of Mount Taurus, extending in a N. E. direction from the gulf of Issus to- ward the Euphrates, and separating Cilicia from Syria, which it bounds on the north. AMAR, J. P. Andrl, a French revolutionist, born in Grenoble about 1750, died in Paris in 1816. Elected in 1792 to the convention for the department of Isere, he voted-for the exe- cution of Louis XVI. within 24 hours, and for the rejection of the appeal to the people. Be- ing sent as a commissary to his own depart- ment, he showed himself a merciless persecu- AMARANTH tor of his neighbors, systematically denounced the Girondists on every occasion, and contrib- uted his part to the fall of the Dantonists, then called moderes, and the Hebertists, stig- matized as anarchists. He appeared to favor Robespierre's system, but materially contrib- uted to his defeat before the convention. When in 1795 Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Va- rennes, and Barrere were condemned to be transported, he presented himself as their ad- vocate. The consequence of this act was his confinement in the fortress of Ham. He re- gained his liberty by the decree of amnesty rendered by the convention on its final ad- journment. By order of the directory, he was subsequently arrested as an accomplice in the conspiracy of Drouet and Baboeuf, but released for want of legal testimony. However, he was exiled from Paris during Napoleon's reign, and spent the rest of his life in obscurity. AMARANTH (amarantw ; Gr. a/tap&vrof, un- fading, because the flowers retain their bright colors when dead), a genus of plants of the family of amarantacea. This genus is rich in species, most of which grow within the tropics (about 60 in Asia, 105 in America, 10 in Africa), some without the tropics (about 20 in Asia, 25 in America, 28 in New Holland, several in Africa, 5 in Europe), either in groups or singly, in dry stony situations or among thickets, few in salt marshes. The most ornamental exotic species, cultivated in Europe and in the United States, all annuals, are : A. caudabus (love-lies- bleeding), native of India, from 2 to 3 feet high ; Amarantus csudatus (Love-Lies- Bleeding). leaves oval, oblong, reddish ; flowers crimson, in long hanging clusters ; a gigantic variety is 9 feet high. A. sanguineus, of India; stem and leaves blood-red ; leaves oval, often emar- ginate ; flowers red, small, axillary, with inter- nudal clusters. A. speciosus, of Nepaul; py- ramidal, 6 feet high ; flowers purplish crimson along the branches. A. tricolor, of China;