Ascham, Roger
as'kam, Roger (1515-1568), a Yorkshire scholar. He was a graduate of Cambridge. He was renowned as a student of Greek and Latin. In 1548 he became tutor to the Princess, afterward Queen, Elizabeth, with whom he read Cicero, Livy, Sophocles, and other classical writers. Ascham traveled extensively as secretary to the English ambassador to Charles V. He wrote a famous treatise on archery, called Toxophilus. His best known work, however, is The Scolemaster, expressive of his methods of teaching Latin, and giving in a general way his conception of the proper method of education. The Scolemaster will well repay careful reading. Although he lived in an age when Latin was the language of the educated, and was himself the leading Latin scholar of his day, Ascham took pride in saying of the Toxophilus, that he had "written this Englishe matter in the Englishe for Englishemen." See Elizabeth; Alcuin
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Ascian
plural ASCIANS, in the plural, those who at midday of one or two days of the year are destitute of a shadow. Those living in the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are so at midday once a year, and those living between those circles are so twice a year.
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Ascidia
or ASCIDIE, the first order of the tunicated class of mollusca. It contains four families, the ascidiada, or simple ascidians; the clavellinidæ, or social ascidians; the botryllidæ, or compound ascidians; and the pyrosomatida, an aberrant family tending to the order biphora.
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Ascidiade
simple ascidians; the typical family of the ascidian order of tunicated mollusca. The animals are simple and fixed; they are solitary and gregarious, with their branchial sac simple or disposed in 8-18 deep and regular folds. Their external integument is provided with two apertures, making them look like double-necked jars. When touched they squirt a stream of water to some distance. They look like shapeless cartilaginous masses. Some are highly colored. In Brazil, China, and the Mediterranean they are eaten as food.
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Asclepias
Important: Safety Warning
This page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text.
In addition, this page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
a genus of plants, the typical one of the order asclepiadaceæ. The species are found chiefly along the eastern portion of North America, in Bermuda, etc. Though all more or less poisonous, they are used medicinally. A. decumbens, excites general perspiration without in any perceptible degree increasing the heat of the body. It is used in Virginia as a remedy against aga pleurisy. Another variety, A. tuberosa, is a mild cathartic and diaphoretic. The root and tender stalks of A. volubilis create sick- A. tuberosa ness and expectoration. (butterfly weed) and A. curassavica, sometimes but incorrectly called ipecacuanha, are also medicinal plants, while A. lactifera yields a sweet, copious milk used by the Indians, etc.; hence the ordinary name milkweed. A. aphylla and stipitacea are eatable.
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Ascoli Piceno
frontier town of central Italy, in the Marches, 73 miles S. of Ancona. It is a handsome place, well built and strongly fortified. Ascoli is the ancient Asculum Picenum, described by Strabo as a place of almost inaccessible strength. It sustained a memorable siege against the Romans under Pompey. Ascoli manufactures majolica ware, glass, wax, silks, leather, hats, and cloth, and is com commercially very active. Pop. about 30,000. ASCOLIO SATRIANO (sat-re-ä'nō) a very ancient town of south Italy, in the province of Foggia, 13 miles S. E. of Bovino. It was here that Pyrrhus encountered for a second time the Roman legion, but with no decisive result to either side. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1400. Pop. about 10,000. ASCOMYCETES. See FUNGUS.
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Ascot Heath
a race-course in Berkshire, England, 29 miles W. S. W. of London, and 6 miles S. W. of Windsor. It is circular, only 66 yards short of 2 miles in length; the races take place early in June and include the famous Ascot Gold Cup, instituted in 1771. The course was laid out in 1711 by order of Queen Anne.
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Asdood
or ASDOUD, a small seaport of Palestine, on the Mediterranean, 35 miles W. of Jerusalem. It was the Ashdod of Scripture, one of the five confederate cities of the Philistines, and one of the seats of the worship of Dagon. It occupied a commanding position on the high road from Palestine to Egypt, and was never subdued by the Israelites. It sustained against Psammetichus a siege of 29 years B. C. 630; was destroyed by the Maccabees, and restored by the Romans, B. c. 55. It is now an insignificant village called Esdud, from which the sea is constantly receding.
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Ash Tree
The Ash had a wonderful influence. The old Christmas log was of ash wood, and the use of it at this time was helpful to the future prosperity of the family. Venomous animals, it was said, would not take shelter under its branches. A carriage with its axles made of ash wood was believed to go faster than a carriage with its axles made of any other wood; and tools with handles made of this wood were supposed to enable a man to do more work than he could do with tools whose handles were not of ash. Hence the reason that ash wood is generally used for tool handles. It was upon ash branches that witches were enabled to ride through the air; and those who ate on St. John's eve the red buds of the tree, were rendered invulnerable to witches' influence.
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Ashburton Treaty
a treaty concluded at Washington in 1842, by Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton, and the President of the United States; it defined the boundaries between the State of Maine and Canada. (-zōsh), ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH a town of Leicestershire, England, near the source of the Mease, a tributary of the Trent, 18 miles N. W. of Leicester. It owes its suffix to the Norman family of La Zouch. Their ruined castle, cele- , large machine brated in Scott's "Ivanhoe," crowns a height to the S. of the town. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here. Leather is the staple industry. about 5,000.
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Ashera
an ancient Semitic goddess, whose symbol was the phallus. In the Revised Version of the Old Testament this word is used to translate what in the ordinary version is translated "grove," as connected with the idolatrous practice into which the Jews were prone to fall.
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