are small and yellow, in close racemes. The whole plant has a pleasant, slightly aromatic smell, and is bitter and styptic. A decoction of it is used as a gargle; the dried leaves form a kind of herb tea, and the root has some celebrity as a vermifuge. Very similar to this is Agrimonia parviflora, a native of Virginia, the Carolinas, etc., which has a very agreeable fragrance.
AGRIP'PA. See under Herod.
AGRIPPA, Henricus Cornelius (1486-1535). A cosmopolitan physician, philosopher, and writer, whose genius and learning had a tinge of quackery. He was born at Cologne, September 14, 1486. At the age of twenty, he was sent by Emperor Maximilian on a diplomatic mission to Paris. At twenty-three, he was teaching theology at Dôle, in the Franche-Comte. Here he attacked the monks, who replied with an accusation of heresy. In 1510, he reëntered the diplomatic service, and the next year he attended, as theologian, the schismatic Council of Pisa. In 1515, he lectured at Pavia, where he received a doctor's degree in law and medicine; then, after some years in diplomatic service, he became involved once more in controversy with the Church, for his bold defense at Metz of a woman accused of witchcraft. He practiced medicine at Geneva, Fribourg. and Lyons, and, under pressure of poverty, composed a keen Latin satire on the existent state of science, A Declamation on the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences and Arts, and on the Excellence of the Word of God (De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum, etc.) (1527), which furnished new occasion for malicious accusation. In 1529, he quarreled with the queen-mother, Louise of Savoy, and left Lyons for the Netherlands, to become historiographer of the Emperor Charles V., of whose reign he wrote a history. His salary was unpaid, and he was imprisoned and finally banished from Cologne for debt. He found a brief refuge at Grenoble, where he died, February 18, 1535, only to be pursued in the grave by a spiteful epitaph from his Dominican enemies. Agrippa was a man of clear sight and keen wit: but he lacked stability, seriousness, and discretion. His Works appeared at Lyons in two volumes (1550). They are analyzed in Henry Morley's appreciative Life of Agrippa (London. 1856). Noteworthy are Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia (1510), which gives an account of the Cabbala (q.v.), and De Nobilitate et Præcellentia Fœminei Sexus (1532).
AGRIPPA, Marcus Vipsanius (63-12 B.C.). A Roman general and statesman. Though not of high birth, he rose to an exalted position through his own talents. He first married Marcella, the niece, and then Julia, the daughter, of Octavianus (Augustus). He was eminent both in war and in peace; and as a general, counselor, and friend of the Emperor, did good service to him and to the Roman State. As a general, he laid the foundation for the sole dominion of Octavianus, and commanded his fleet in the battle of Actium (q.v.). He was generous, upright, and friendly to the arts: Rome owed to him the restoration and construction of several aqueducts, and the erection of the Pantheon, besides other public works of ornament and utility.
AG'RIPPI'NA. (1) The daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa (q.v.) and Julia, daughter of Augustus. She was one of the most heroic and virtuous women of antiquity. She was married to Germanicus (see Germanicus Cæsar), whom she accompanied in all his campaigns. She openly accused Tiberius before the Senate of having hired the murderers of her husband; and the tyrant, who hated her for her virtues and the esteem in which she was held by the people, banished her to the island of Pandataria, near Naples, where she voluntarily died of hunger (33 A.D.). (2) The daughter of the last mentioned, and one of the most detestable women that ever lived. In her second widowhood, she induced the Emperor Claudius, her own uncle, to marry her, and espoused his daughter, though already betrothed to another, to her son Nero. In order to bring the latter to the throne, she ruined many rich and noble Romans, excluded Britannicus, the son of Claudius by Messalina, and finally poisoned the Emperor, her husband. She then endeavored to govern the Empire through her son Nero, who was proclaimed emperor; but her ascendency proving intolerable, Nero caused her to be put to death (59 A.D.). She enlarged and adorned her native city, Cologne, which received from her the name of Colonia Agrippinensis.
AG'ROPY'RON ( Literally field-wheat. Gk. ἀγρός, agros, field + πυρός, pyros, wheat). A genus of grasses including about fifty species, most of which are perennials. A number are native to the western United States, where they are commonly known as wheat grasses, and are held to be valuable for pasturage. Other species are common to Europe and the eastern United States, where Agropyron repens, often called couch grass and twitch grass, is a pest to agriculture. It has a long rhizome that roots at the nodes, and if plowed or harrowed it merely breaks up into new plants. Therefore it is hard to eradicate. Upon the Western ranges, however, it is deemed a good hay grass. The habits of the plants enable them to withstand drought, a characteristic that commends them in the large stock regions. Some of the valuable species are Agropyron caninum, bearded wheat grass; Agropyron divergens, wire bunch grass; Agropyron pseudo-repens, western couch grass; Agropyron spicatum, western wheat grass; and Agropyron tenerum, slender wheat grass. In Australia Agropyron scabrum is considered a good winter grass. Some of the species, as Agropyron repens, are recommended as binder grasses for railroad embankments and other places liable to washouts. The root stalks of Agropyron repens, well known in medicine under the name Radix graminis, have diuretic and aperient properties.
AGTELEK, og'te-lek, or AGGTELEK. A village of Hungary, in the county of Gömör, about 40 miles west-southwest of Kaschau (Map; Hungary, G 2). It is known for it.s remarkable stalactite cavern, called Baradla (steaming-place), the largest in the world after the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. It is entered through an opening scarcely 3 feet high by 5 feet wide. It consists of a labyrinth of caverns communicating with one another, whose combined length is about five miles. The largest of them is over 900 feet long and more than 90 feet in height and breadth. Many of the stalactitic formations are of singular and fantastic shape, giving rise to the names borne by some of the grottoes, such as the Cathedral, Paradise, Flower Garden, etc.
AGUA, ii'gwa. A South American toad (Bufo
