Queen Elizabeth, at whose court, it is said, though on doubtful authority, that he resided for a considerable period. With the sanction of Parliament, he carried on for several years extensive works for the embankment of the Thames, and so reclaimed a large quantity of waste land, part of which was bestowed upon him by way of recompense. His gratitude to Queen Elizabeth was expressed in the dedication to her of his celebrated Collection of the Stratagems of Satan, which has been often translated, and has passed through many editions. Various opinions have been given of this work, which advocated toleration to an extent that many considered indifference. The nature of its doctrine may perhaps be best gathered from the fact that it gained for the author the praise of Arminius, and the strong condemnation of the Calvinists. Acontius also wrote a treatise, De Methodo, which was published at Basel in 1558. He died in London about the year 1566.
Acorus, a genus of monocotyledonous plants belonging to the natural order Aroideæ, and the sub-order Orontiaceæ. Acorus Calamus, sweet-sedge or sweet-flag, is a native of Britain. It has an agreeable odour, and has been used as a strengthening remedy, as well as to allay spasms. The starchy matter contained in its running stem or rhizome is associated with a fragrant oil, and it is used as hair-powder. Confectioners form a candy from the rhizomes of the plant, and it is also used by perfumers in preparing aromatic vinegar.
Acosta, Christoval d', a Portuguese naturalist, born at Mozambique in the early part of the 16th century. On a voyage to Asia he was taken captive by pirates, who exacted from him a very large ransom. After spending some years in India, chiefly at Goa, a Portuguese colony, he returned home, and settled as a surgeon at Burgos. Here he published his Tratado de las drogas y medecinas de las Indias orientates (1578). This work was translated into Latin, Italian, and French, became well known through out Europe, and is still consulted as an authority. Acosta also wrote an account of his travels, a book in praise of women, and other works. He died in 1580.
Acosta, Joseph d', a celebrated Spanish author, was born at Medina del Campo about the year 1539. In 1571 he went to Peru as a provincial of the Jesuits; and, after remaining there for seventeen . years, he returned to his native country, where he became in succession visitor for his order of Aragon and Andalusia, superior of Valladolid, and rector of the university of Salamanca, in which city he died in February 1600. About ten years before his death he published at Seville his valuable Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, part of which had previously appeared in Latin, with the title De Natura Novi Orbis, libri duo. This work, which has been translated into all the principal languages of Europe, gives exceedingly valuable information regarding the condition of South America at the time. On the subject of climate Acosta was the first to propound the theory, afterwards advocated by Buffon, which attributed the different degrees of heat in the old and new continents to the agency of the winds. He also contradicted, from his own experience, the statement of Aristotle, that the middle zone of the earth was so scorched by the sun as to be destitute of moisture, and totally uninhabitable. Even after the discovery of America this Aristotelian dogma was an article of faith, and its denial was one ground of the charge of scepticism and atheism brought against Sir Walter Raleigh. Acosla, however, boldly declared that what he had seen was so different from what he had expected, that he could not but "laugh at Aristotle's meteors and his philosophy." In speaking of the conduct of his country men, and the means they employed for the propagation of their faith, Acosta is in no respect superior to the other prejudiced writers of his country and age. Though he acknowledges that the career of Spanish conquest was marked by the most savage cruelty and oppression, he yet represents this people as chosen by God to spread the gospel among the nations of America, and recounts a variety of miracles as a proof of the constant interposition of Heaven in favour of the merciless and rapacious invaders. Besides his History, Acosta wrote the following works:—1. De Promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros; 2. De Christo Revelato; 3. De Temporibus Novissimis, lib. vi.; 4. Concionum tomi iii.
Acosta, Uriel d', a Portuguese of noble family, was born at Oporto towards the close of the 16th century. His father being a Jewish convert to Christianity, he was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, and strictly observed the rites of the church till the course of his inquiries led him, after much painful doubt, to abandon the religion of his youth for Judaism. Passing over to Amsterdam, he was received into the synagogue, having his name changed from Gabriel to Uriel. He soon discovered, however, that those who sat in Moses' seat were shameful perverters of the law; and his bold protests served only to exasperate the rabbis, who finally punished his contumacy with the greater excommunication. Persecution seemed only to stimulate his temerity, and he soon after published a defence, Examen das tradiçoens Phariseas, &c., in which he not merely exposed the departures of the Jewish teachers from the law, but combated the doctrine of a future life, holding himself supported in this position by the silence of the Mosaic Books. For this he was imprisoned and fined, besides incurring public odium as a blasphemer and atheist. Nothing deterred, he pursued his speculations, which ended in his repudiating the divine authority of the law of Moses. Wearied, however, by his melancholy isolation, and longing for the benefits of society, he was driven, in the inconsistency of despairing scepticism, to seek a return to the Jewish communion. Having recanted his heresies, he was readmitted after an excommunication of fifteen years, but was soon excommunicated a second time. After seven years of miserable exclusion, he once more sought admission, and, on passing through a humiliating penance, was again received. These notices of his singular and unhappy life are taken from his autobiography, Exemplar Humanæ Vitæ, published, with a "refutation," by Limborch, and republished in 1847. It has been said that he died by his own hand, but this is, to say the least, doubtful. His eventful history forms the subject of a tale and of a tragedy by Gutzkow.
Acotyledones, the name given to one of the Classes of the Natural System of Botany, embracing flowerless plants, such as ferns, lycopods, horse-tails, mosses, liverworts, lichens, sea-weeds, and mushrooms. The name is derived from the character of the embryo, which has no cotyledon. Flowering plants have usually one or two cotyledons, that is, seed-leaves or seed-lobes connected with their embryo; while in flowerless plants the body representing the embryo consists of a cell, called a spore, without any leaves. The plants have no flowers, and their organs of reproduction are inconspicuous, hence they are called by Linnæus cryptogamous. Some flowering plants, such as dodders, have no cotyledons; and some have the cotyledons divided into more than two, as in conifers. Some acotyledonous spores, when sprouting, produce a leaf-like expansion called a prothallus, on which the organs of reproduction, consisting of antheridia and archegonia, are produced. This is well seen in the case of ferns. In the interior of the antheridian cells, moving filamentous bodies, called spermatozoids, have been observed. These fertilise the archegonial cells, whence new plants are produced. In the article Botany these plants will be noticed under Class III. of the Natural System.
