Maine-et-Loire, 191 m. S.W. of Paris by the Western railway to Nantes.
Pop. (1906) 73,585. It occupies rising ground on both banks of the
Maine, which are united by three bridges. The surrounding district is
famous for its flourishing nurseries and market gardens. Pierced
with wide, straight streets, well provided with public gardens, and
surrounded by ample, tree-lined boulevards, beyond which lie new
suburbs, Angers is one of the pleasantest towns in France. Of its
numerous medieval buildings the most important is the cathedral of
St. Maurice, dating in the main from the 12th and 13th centuries.
Between the two flanking towers of the west façade, the spires of
which are of the 16th century, rises a central tower of the same
period. The most prominent feature of the façade is the series of
eight warriors carved on the base of this tower. The vaulting of the
nave takes the form of a series of cupolas, and that of the choir and
transept is similar. The chief treasures of the church are its rich
stained glass (12th, 13th and 15th centuries) and valuable tapestry
(14th to 18th centuries). The bishop's palace which adjoins the
cathedral contains a fine synodal hall of the 12th century. Of the
other churches of Angers, the principal are St. Serge, an abbey-church
of the 12th and 15th centuries, and La Trinité (12th century). The
prefecture occupies the buildings of the famous abbey of St. Aubin; in
its courtyard are elaborately sculptured arcades of the 11th and 12th
centuries, from which period dates the tower, the only survival of the
splendid abbey-church. Ruins of the old churches of Toussaint (13th
century) and Notre-Dame du Ronceray (11th century) are also to be
seen. The castle of Angers, an imposing building girt with towers and
a moat, dates from the 13th century and is now used as an armoury.
The ancient hospital of St. Jean (12th century) is occupied by an
archaeological museum; and the Logis Barrault, a mansion built about
1500, contains the public library, the municipal museum, which has
a large collection of pictures and sculptures, and the Musée David,
containing works by the famous sculptor David d'Angers, who was a
native of the town. One of his masterpieces, a bronze statue of René
of Anjou, stands close by the castle. The Hôtel de Pincé or d'Anjou
(1523-1530) is the finest of the stone mansions of Angers; there are
also many curious wooden houses of the 15th and 16th centuries. The
palais de justice, the Catholic institute, a fine theatre, and
a hospital with 1500 beds are the more remarkable of the modern
buildings of the town. Angers is the seat of a bishopric, dating
from the 3rd century, a prefecture, a court of appeal and a court of
assizes. It has a tribunal of first instance, a tribunal of commerce,
a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a branch of
the Bank of France and several learned societies. Its educational
institutions include ecclesiastical seminaries, a lycée, a preparatory
school of medicine and pharmacy, a university with free faculties
(_facultés libres_) of theology, law, letters and science, a higher
school of agriculture, training colleges, a school of arts and
handicrafts and a school of fine art. The prosperity of the town
is largely due to the great slate-quarries of the vicinity, but the
distillation of liqueurs from fruit, cable, rope and thread-making,
and the manufacture of boots and shoes, umbrellas and parasols are
leading industries. The weaving of sail-cloth and woollen and other
fabrics, machine construction, wire-drawing, and manufacture of
sparkling wines and preserved fruits are also carried on. The chief
articles of commerce, besides slate and manufactured goods, are hemp,
early vegetables, fruit, flowers and live-stock.
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Angers, capital of the Gallic tribe of the Andecavi, was under the
Romans called Juliomagus. During the 9th century it became the seat of
the counts of Anjou (_q.v._). It suffered severely from the invasions
of the Northmen in 845 and the succeeding years, and of the English
in the 12th and 15th centuries; the Huguenots took it in 1585, and the
Vendean royalists were repulsed near it in 1793. Till the Revolution,
Angers was the seat of a celebrated university founded in the 14th
century.
See L.M. Thorode, _Notice de la ville d'Angers_ (Angers, 1897).
ANGERSTEIN, JOHN JULIUS (1735-1822), London merchant, and patron of
the fine arts, was born at St. Petersburg and settled in London about
1749. His collection of paintings, consisting of about forty of
the most exquisite specimens of the art, purchased by the British
government, on his death, formed the nucleus of the National Gallery.
ANGILBERT (d. 814), Frankish Latin poet, and minister of Charlemagne,
was of noble Frankish parentage, and educated at the palace school
under Alcuin. As the friend and adviser of the emperor's son, Pippin,
he assisted for a while in the government of Italy, and was later
sent on three important embassies to the pope, in 792, 794 and 796.
Although he was the father of two children by Charlemagne's daughter,
Bertha, one of them named Nithard, we have no authentic account of
his marriage, and from 790 he was abbot of St. Riquier, where his
brilliant rule gained for him later the renown of a saint. Angilbert,
however, was little like the true medieval saint; his poems reveal
rather the culture and tastes of a man of the world, enjoying the
closest intimacy with the imperial family. He accompanied Charlemagne
to Rome in 800 and was one of the witnesses to his will in 814.
Angilbert was the Homer of the emperor's literary circle, and was
the probable author of an epic, of which the fragment which has been
preserved describes the life at the palace and the meeting between
Charlemagne and Leo III. It is a mosaic from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and
Fortunatus, composed in the manner of Einhard's use of Suetonius,
and exhibits a true poetic gift. Of the shorter poems, besides the
greeting to Pippin on his return from the campaign against the Avars
(796), an epistle to David (Charlemagne) incidentally reveals a
delightful picture of the poet living with his children in a house
surrounded by pleasant gardens near the emperor's palace. The
reference to Bertha, however, is distant and respectful, her name
occurring merely on the list of princesses to whom he sends his
salutation.
Angilbert's poems have been published by E. Dummler in the _Monumenta
Germaniae Historica_. For criticisms of this edition see Traube in
Roederer's _Schriften für germanische Philologie_ (1888). See also A.
Molinier, _Les Sources de l'histoire de France._
ANGINA PECTORIS (Latin for "pain of the chest"), a term applied to a
violent paroxysm of pain, arising almost invariably in connexion
with disease of the coronary arteries, a lesion causing progressive
degeneration of the heart muscle (see HEART: _Disease_). An attack of
angina pectoris usually comes on with a sudden seizure of pain, felt
at first over the region of the heart, but radiating through the chest
in various directions, and frequently extending down the left arm.
A feeling of constriction and of suffocation accompanies the pain,
although there is seldom actual difficulty in breathing. When the
attack comes on, as it often does, in the course of some bodily
exertion, the sufferer is at once brought to rest, and during the
continuance of the paroxysm experiences the most intense agony. The
countenance becomes pale, the surface of the body cold, the pulse
feeble, and death appears to be imminent, when suddenly the attack
subsides and complete relief is obtained. The duration of a paroxysm
rarely exceeds two or three minutes, but it may last for a longer
period. The attacks are apt to recur on slight exertion, and even in
aggravated cases without any such exciting cause. Occasionally the
first seizure proves fatal; but more commonly death takes place as the
result of repeated attacks. Angina pectoris is extremely rare under
middle life, and is much more common in males than in females. It
must always be regarded as a disorder of a very serious nature. In the
treatment of the paroxysm, nitrite of amyl has now replaced all other
remedies. It can be carried by the patient in the form of nitrite
of amyl pearls, each pearl containing the dose prescribed by the
physician. Kept in this way the drug does not lose strength. As soon
as the pain begins the patient crushes a pearl in his handkerchief
and holds it to his mouth and nose. The relief given in this way is
marvellous and usually takes place within a very few seconds. In the
rare cases where this drug does not relieve, hypodermic injections
of morphia are used. But on account of the well-known dangers of this
drug, it should only be administered by a medical man. To prevent
recurrence of the attacks something may be done by scrupulous
attention to the general health, and by the avoidance of mental and
physical strain. But the most important preventive of all is "bed,"
of which fourteen days must be enforced on the least premonition of
anginal pain.
_Pseudo-angina_.--In connexion with angina pectoris, a far more common
condition must be mentioned that has now universally received the
name of pseudo-angina. This includes the praecordial pains which very
closely resemble those of true angina. The essential difference lies
in the fact that pseudo-angina is independent of structural disease
of the heart and coronary arteries. In true angina there is some
condition within the heart which starts the stimulus sent to the nerve
centres. In pseudo-angina the starting-point is not the heart but
some peripheral or visceral nerve. The impulse passes thence to the
medulla, and so reaching the sensory centres starts a feeling of pain
that radiates into the chest or down the arm. There are three main
varieties:--(1) the reflex, (2) the vaso-motor, (3) the toxic. The
reflex is by far the most common, and is generally due to irritation
from one of the abdominal organs. An attack of pseudo-angina may be
agonizing, the pain radiating through the chest and into the left arm,
but the patient does not usually assume the motionless attitude of
true angina, and the duration of the seizure is usually much longer.
The treatment is that of the underlying neurosis and the prognosis is
a good one, sudden death not occurring.
ANGIOSPERMS. The botanical term "Angiosperm" ([Greek: angeion],
receptacle, and [Greek: sperma], seed) was coined in the form
Angiospermae by Paul Hermann in 1690, as the name of that one of
his primary divisions of the plant kingdom, which included flowering
plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, in contradistinction to
his Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic
fruits--the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as
a seed and naked. The term and its antonym were maintained by Linnaeus
with the same sense, but with restricted application, in the names of
the orders of his class Didynamia. Its use with any approach to its
modern scope only became possible after Robert Brown had established
in 1827 the existence of truly naked seeds in the Cycadeae and
Coniferae, entitling them to be correctly called Gymnosperms. From
that time onwards, so long as these Gymnosperms were, as was usual,
reckoned as dicotyledonous flowering plants, the term Angiosperm was
used antithetically by botanical writers, but with varying limitation,
as a group-name for other dicotyledonous plants. The advent in 1851
of Hofmeister's brilliant discovery of the changes proceeding in the
embryo-sac of flowering plants, and his determination of the correct
relationships of these with the Cryptogamia, fixed the true position
of Gymnosperms as a class distinct from Dicotyledons, and the
term Angiosperm then gradually came to be accepted as the suitable
designation for the whole of the flowering plants other than
Gymnosperms, and as including therefore the classes of Dicotyledons
and Monocotyledons. This is the sense in which the term is nowadays
received and in which it is used here.
[v.02 p.0010]
The trend of the evolution of the plant kingdom has been in the
direction of the establishment of a vegetation of fixed habit and
adapted to the vicissitudes of a life on land, and the Angiosperms are
the highest expression of this evolution and constitute the dominant
vegetation of the earth's surface at the present epoch. There is no
land-area from the poles to the equator, where plant-life is possible,
upon which Angiosperms are not found. They occur also abundantly in
the shallows of rivers and fresh-water lakes, and in less number in
salt lakes and in the sea; such aquatic Angiosperms are not, however,
primitive forms, but are derived from immediate land-ancestors.
Associated with this diversity of habitat is great variety in general
form and manner of growth. The familiar duckweed which covers the
surface of a pond consists of a tiny green "thalloid" shoot, one, that
is, which shows no distinction of parts--stem and leaf, and a
simple root growing vertically downwards into the water. The great
forest-tree has a shoot, which in the course perhaps of hundreds of
years, has developed a wide-spreading system of trunk and branches,
bearing on the ultimate twigs or branchlets innumerable leaves, while
beneath the soil a widely-branching root-system covers an area of
corresponding extent. Between these two extremes is every conceivable
gradation, embracing aquatic and terrestrial herbs, creeping, erect or
climbing in habit, shrubs and trees, and representing a much greater
variety than is to be found in the other subdivision of seed-plants,
the Gymnosperms.
_Internal structure._
In internal structure also the variety of tissue-formation far exceeds
that found in Gymnosperms (see PLANTS: _Anatomy_). The vascular
bundles of the stem belong to the collateral type, that is to say,
the elements of the wood or xylem and the bast or phloem stand side
by side on the same radius. In the larger of the two great groups into
which the Angiosperms are divided, the Dicotyledons, the bundles in
the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central
pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and
phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue, known as
cambium; by the formation of a layer of cambium between the bundles
(interfascicular cambium) a complete ring is formed, and a regular
periodical increase in thickness results from it by the development
of xylem on the inside and phloem on the outside. The soft phloem soon
becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists, and forms the great bulk
of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Owing to differences
in the character of the elements produced at the beginning and end
of the season, the wood is marked out in transverse section into
concentric rings, one for each season of growth--the so-called annual
rings. In the smaller group, the Monocotyledons, the bundles are more
numerous in the young stem and scattered through the ground tissue.
Moreover they contain no cambium and the stem once formed increases in
diameter only in exceptional cases.
_Vegetative organs._
As in Gymnosperms, branching is monopodial; dichotomy or the forking
of the growing point into two equivalent branches which replace the
main stem, is absent both in the case of the stem and the root. The
leaves show a remarkable variety in form (see LEAF), but are generally
small in comparison with the size of the plant; exceptions occur in
some Monocotyledons, _e.g._ in the Aroid family, where in some genera
the plant produces one huge, much-branched leaf each season.
In rare cases the main axis is unbranched and ends in a flower,
as, for instance, in the tulip, where scale-leaves, forming the
underground bulb, green foliage-leaves and coloured floral leaves are
borne on one and the same axis. Generally, flowers are formed only
on shoots of a higher order, often only on the ultimate branches of
a much branched system. A potential branch or bud, either foliage or
flower, is formed in the axil of each leaf; sometimes more than one
bud arises, as for instance in the walnut, where two or three stand in
vertical series above each leaf. Many of the buds remain dormant, or
are called to development under exceptional circumstances, such as
the destruction of existing branches. For instance, the clipping of
a hedge or the lopping of a tree will cause to develop numerous buds
which may have been dormant for years. Leaf-buds occasionally arise
from the roots, when they are called adventitious; this occurs in many
fruit trees, poplars, elms and others. For instance, the young shoots
seen springing from the ground around an elm are not seedlings but
root-shoots. Frequently, as in many Dicotyledons, the primary root,
the original root of the seedling, persists throughout the life of
the plant, forming, as often in biennials, a thickened tap-root, as
in carrot, or in perennials, a much-branched root system. In many
Dicotyledons and most Monocotyledons, the primary root soon perishes,
and its place is taken by adventitious roots developed from the stem.
_Flower._
The most characteristic feature of the Angiosperm is the flower, which
shows remarkable variety in form and elaboration, and supplies the
most trustworthy characters for the distinction of the series and
families or natural orders, into which the group is divided. The
flower is a shoot (stem bearing leaves) which has a special form
associated with the special function of ensuring the fertilization of
the egg and the development of fruit containing seed. Except where
it is terminal it arises, like the leaf-shoot, in the axil of a leaf,
which is then known as a bract. Occasionally, as in violet, a flower
arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf; it is then
termed axillary. Generally, however, the flower-bearing portion of
the plant is sharply distinguished from the foliage leaf-bearing or
vegetative portion, and forms a more or less elaborate branch-system
in which the bracts are small and scale-like. Such a branch-system is
called an inflorescence. The primary function of the flower is to bear
the spores. These, as in Gymnosperms, are of two kinds, microspores
or pollen-grains, borne in the stamens (or microsporophylls) and
megaspores, in which the egg-cell is developed, contained in the
ovule, which is borne enclosed in the carpel (or megasporophyll). The
flower may consist only of spore-bearing leaves, as in willow, where
each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels. Usually,
however, other leaves are present which are only indirectly concerned
with the reproductive process, acting as protective organs for the
sporophylls or forming an attractive envelope. These form the perianth
and are in one series, when the flower is termed monochlamydeous, or
in two series (dichlamydeous). In the second case the outer series
(calyx of sepals) is generally green and leaf-like, its function being
to protect the rest of the flower, especially in the bud; while
the inner series (corolla of petals) is generally white or brightly
coloured, and more delicate in structure, its function being to
attract the particular insect or bird by agency of which pollination
is effected. The insect, &c., is attracted by the colour and scent
of the flower, and frequently also by honey which is secreted in some
part of the flower. (For further details on the form and arrangement
of the flower and its parts, see FLOWER.)
_Stamen and pollen._
Each stamen generally bears four pollen-sacs (_microsporangia_)
which are associated to form the anther, and carried up on a stalk
or filament. The development of the microsporangia and the contained
spores (pollen-grains) is closely comparable with that of the
microsporangia in Gymnosperms or heterosporous ferns. The pollen is
set free by the opening (dehiscence) of the anther, generally by means
of longitudinal slits, but sometimes by pores, as in the heath family
(Ericaceae), or by valves, as in the barberry. It is then dropped
or carried by some external agent, wind, water or some member of the
animal kingdom, on to the receptive surface of the carpel of the same
or another flower. The carpel, or aggregate of carpels forming the
pistil or gynaeceum, comprises an ovary containing one or more ovules
and a receptive surface or stigma; the stigma is sometimes carried up
on a style. The mature pollen-grain is, like other spores, a single
cell; except in the case of some submerged aquatic plants, it has
a double wall, a thin delicate wall of unaltered cellulose, the
endospore or intine, and a tough outer cuticularized exospore or
extine. The exospore often bears spines or warts, or is variously
sculptured, and the character of the markings is often of value
for the distinction of genera or higher groups. Germination of the
microspore begins before it leaves the pollen-sac. In very few cases
has anything representing prothallial development been observed;
generally a small cell (the antheridial or generative cell) is cut
off, leaving a larger tube-cell. When placed on the stigma, under
favourable circumstances, the pollen-grain puts forth a pollen-tube
which grows down the tissue of the style to the ovary, and makes its
way along the placenta, guided by projections or hairs, to the mouth
of an ovule. The nucleus of the tube-cell has meanwhile passed into
the tube, as does also the generative nucleus which divides to
form two male- or sperm-cells. The male-cells are carried to their
destination in the tip of the pollen-tube.
[v.02 p.0011]
_Pistil and embryo-sac._
The ovary contains one or more ovules borne on a placenta, which is
generally some part of the ovary-wall. The development of the ovule,
which represents the macrosporangium, is very similar to the
process in Gymnosperms; when mature it consists of one or two coats
surrounding the central nucellus, except at the apex where an opening,
the micropyle, is left. The nucellus is a cellular tissue enveloping
one large cell, the embryo-sac or macrospore. The germination of the
macrospore consists in the repeated division of its nucleus to form
two groups of four, one group at each end of the embryo-sac. One
nucleus from each group, the polar nucleus, passes to the centre of
the sac, where the two fuse to form the so-called definitive nucleus.
Of the three cells at the micropylar end of the sac, all naked cells
(the so-called egg-apparatus), one is the egg-cell or oosphere, the
other two, which may be regarded as representing abortive egg-cells
(in rare cases capable of fertilization), are known as synergidae.
The three cells at the opposite end are known as antipodal cells
and become invested with a cell-wall. The gametophyte or prothallial
generation is thus extremely reduced, consisting of but little more
than the male and female sexual cells--the two sperm-cells in the
pollen-tube and the egg-cell (with the synergidae) in the embryo-sac.
_Fertilization._