Arachis
a genus of leguminous plants belonging to the sub-order cæsalpiniaceæ. The A. hypogæa, the underground arachis (Greek hupogeios=subterranean), is thus called because the legumes are produced and matured beneath the soil. The plant is now cultivated in the warmer parts both of Asia and America. The legumes are eatable. The seeds have a sweet taste and furnish a valuable oil used for lamps and as a substitute for olive oil. In South Carolina they are employed for chocolate.
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Arachnida
the class of animals which contains spiders, scorpions, and mites. It is placed between the crustacea on the one hand, and the insecta on the other. The highest crustacea have 10 feet, the arachnida 8, and the insecta 6. The arachnida are wingless, have no antennæ, breathe by means of tracheal tubes or pulmonary sacs performing the function of lungs. As a rule, they have several simple eyes. They have no proper metamorphosis. They live in a predatory manner. Huxley separates the arachnida into six orders: (1) Arthrogastra, including scorpio, chelifer, phrynusne phalangiumdergaledes, accina, etc.; (2) (3) or mites and ticks; (4) fresh-water arctisca or tardigrada, called water-bears; (5) pycnogonida (marine animals); and (6) pentastomida (parasites).
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Arad
capital of a district in eastern Hungary; on the right bank of the Maros, an affluent of the Theiss; pop. about 65,000. It is an important railway center, and is 95 miles S. E. of Budapest. It carries on a large trade in corn, spirits, wine and tobacco, and is one of the greatest cattle markets of Hungary. During the 17th century it was often captured, and at last destroyed by the Turks. During the Revolutionary War of 1849 it was occupied for a time by the Austrians, who capitulated to the Hungarians in July. In August Arad was surrendered to the Russians by Görgei. New Arad on the other side of the river, has about 7,500 inhabitants.
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Arafat
or JEBEL ER RAHMEH, a hill in Arabia, about 200 feet high, with stone steps reaching to the summit, 15 miles S. E. of Mecca; one of the principal objects of pilgrimage among Mohammedans, who say that it was the place where Adam first received his wife, Eve, after they had been expelled from Para Paradise and separated from each other 120 years. A sermon delivered on the mount constitutes the main ceremony of the Hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca, and entitles the hearer to the name and privileges of a Hadji or pilgrim.
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Aragonite
or ARRAGONITE (from ARAGON, in Spain, where it was first found), a mineral with orthorhombic crystals, generally six-sided prisms, though the rectangular octohedron is considered its regular form. It occurs also globular, reniform, coralloidal, columnar, stalactitic, and incrusting. Its color is white, gray, yellow, green, or violet; it is transparent or translucent, and brittle. Ordinary: (a) vides it: Var. 1. Crystallized in simple or compound crystals, or in radiating groups of acicular crystals; (b) Columnar, including Satin- Spar; (c) Massive. 2. Scaly massive. 3. Stalactitic or Stalagmitic. 4. Coralloidal. 5. Tarnovicite. Mossottite and Oserskite also rank with Aragonite. It occurs in Spain, Austria, Italy, England, America, and elsewhere.
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Aragonite Group
Dana's second group of anhydrous carbonates, comprising aragonite, manganocalcite, witherite, bromlite, strontianite, and cerussite.
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Araguay
or ARA- GUAYA, or RIO GRANDE, a large river of Brazil, which rises in about 19° S. lat., near the Parana, flowing to about 6° S. lat., where it joins the Tocantins. The united stream, after a course of about es, falls into the delta of the 1,300 miles, Amazon in S. lat. 1° 40′.
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Arakan Yoma Mountains
a range of 700 miles long, stretching from the mountains of the Naga City downward along the E. of Chittagong division, Bengal, and and Arakan division, Lower Burma, and through the Irawadi division, and terminating in Cape Negrais; highest peak, Blue Mountain, 7,100 feet.
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Aral
ar'al, a vast inland sea of Asia, situated in Russian Turkestan. It is a shallow body of salt water with an area of 35,000 square miles. It is fourteen times as large as Great Salt Lake . The Aral receives several tributaries, the principal being the Oxus, but it has no outlet, and owing to the excessive evaporation of the hot country in which it lies, it is shrinking in size. At one time it may have been an arm of the Caspian Sea , now 200 miles distant. Its surface is 160 feet above the ocean and 245 feet above the Caspian. Its waters are full of fish. The shores are for the most part salty wastes. Being without harbors and subject to violent storms, the Aral is not safe for navigation. A few fishing craft and Russian steamships venture on its waters.
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Aral Lake
separated by the plateau of Ust-Urt from the Caspian Sea, is the largest lake in the steppes of Asia. It lies wholly within the limits of Russian Central Asia, embracing an area of about 25,000 square miles. It is fed by the Sir-Darya (the ancient Jaxartes) on the N. E. side and the Amu-Darya (or ancient Oxus) on the S. E. It has no outlet, and is generally shallow, its only deep water being on the W. coast, where it reaches a depth of 225 feet; but it shoals gradually eastward to a mere marshy swamp. Fish, including sturgeon, carp, and herring, are abundant, though the water is brackish. The lake is dotted with multitudes of islands and islets. Owing to the shallowness of its waters, and its frequent exposure to fierce and sudden storms, navigation is difficult. The area it now occupies has been dry land twice within historical times. This was the case during the Græco-Roman period, and again during the 13th and 14th centuries.
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Aralia
a genus of plants, the typical one of the order araliaceæ. A. umbellifera exudes an aromatic gum. A. nudicaulis is used as a substitute for sarsaparilla. The berries of A. spinosa, the angelica tree, prickly ash, or toothache tree, of America, infused in wine or spir- Dana thus di-its, are used in cases of colic, while a tincture of them is prescribed in toothache. A. racemosa, the spikenard of America, is also regarded as a medicinal plant. ARAMÆAN (ar-am-a'an), or ARA- MAIC, a Semitic language nearly allied to the Hebrew and Phoenician, anciently spoken in Syria and Palestine and eastward to the Euphrates and Tigris, being the official language of this region under the Persian domination. In Palestine it supplanted Hebrew, and was the tongue of the Jews in the time of Christ. Parts of Daniel and Ezra are written in Aramaic, or, as this form of it is often incorrectly named, Chaldee. An important Aramaic dialect is the Syriac, in which there is an extensive Christian literature.
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