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A genus of plants found in central Europe and about the Mediterranean, having flowers on a spadix inclosed in a spathe. The cuckoopint of the English is an example. Our common arums the lords and ladies of village children. Lubbock.

The fetid gum resin or inspissated juice of a large umbelliferous plant (Ferula asafoetida) of Persia and the East India. It is used in medicine as an antispasmodic. [Written also assafoetida.]

An acrid herbaceous plant (Asarum Europæum), the leaves and roots of which are emetic and cathartic. It is principally used in cephalic snuffs.

A pitcher-shaped, or flask-shaped, organ or appendage of a plant, as the leaves of the pitcher plant, or the little bladderlike traps of the bladderwort (Utricularia).

Of, pertaining to, or resembling, plants of the Milkweed family.

A genus of plants including the milkweed, swallowwort, and some other species having medicinal properties. Asclepias butterfly (Zoöl.), a large, handsome, red and black butterfly (Danais Archippus), found in both hemispheres. It feeds on plants of the genus Asclepias.

Slopingly; aslant; declining from an upright direction; sloping. "Set them not upright, but aslope." Bacon.

A genus of plants of the natural order Leguminosæ. The species are chiefly natives of the Cape of Good Hope.

A white, nitrogenous, crystallizable substance, C4H8N2O3+H2O, found in many plants, and first obtained from asparagus. It is believed to aid in the disposition of nitrogenous matter throughout the plant; -- called also altheine.

A genus of perennial plants belonging to the natural order Liliaceæ, and having erect much branched stems, and very slender branchlets which are sometimes mistaken for leaves. Asparagus racemosus is a shrubby climbing plant with fragrant flowers. Specifically: The Asparagus officinalis, a species cultivated in gardens.…

A general name for a plant of the genus Asphodelus. The asphodels are hardy perennial plants, several species of which are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers.

To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to. [Obs.] That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds. Shak.

One who assaults, or violently attacks; an assailant. E. Hall.

To make sibilant; to change to a sibilant. J. Peile.

Change of a non-sibilant letter to a sibilant, as of -tion to - shun, duke to ditch.

or solid substance of the body, by the processes of digestion and absorption, whether in plants or animals. Not conversing the body, not repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by ventilation. Sir T. Browne.

A plant of the genus Callistephus. Many varieties (called China asters, German asters, etc.) are cultivated for their handsome compound flowers.

A fossil plant from the coal formations of Europe and America, now regarded as the branchlets and foliage of calamites.

A genus of papilionaceous plants, of the tribe Galegeæ, containing numerous species, two of which are called, in English, milk vetch and licorice vetch. Gum tragacanth is obtained from different oriental species, particularly the A. gummifer and A. verus.

t be can make for it is, to warn others. Spectator. The Phocians behaved with, so much gallantry, that they were thought to have made a sufficient atonement for their former offense. Potter.