AMPYX (Delman), a genus of Fossil Crustacea (Trilobites), four species of which have been described by Colonel l'ortlock, from Tyrone.
AllYODA'LEX (Drupaceer of Lindley), a sub-order of the natural order' Rosocec [itosscEs:], among which it is known by its bearing the kind of fruit called a drupe, by the stamens being numerous and arising from the orifice of a tubular calyx, and by the leaves and other parts of the plant yielding hydrocyanic acid. Owing to the last circumstance, the species are all more or less poisonous, especially in those parts where the prussic acid is concentrated, as the leaves of the common laurel, the skin of the kernel of the almond, &c. On the other hand, those parte in which the prussic acid exists either in very minute quantity, or not at all, as the succulent fruit, and some times the kernel, are harmlem, and are often valuable articles of feed. It is on this account that, while the general character of the foliage is either unwholesome or suspicious, the fruit of many of them is much cultivated. The peach, the nectarine, the plum, the cherry, the almond, the apricot, prune, damson, and bullace are produced by different species of this order.
The external form of the Amp/annul is very similar to that of the common eel, but the whole anatomy and physiblogy of the animal approximates it more nearly to the Common Water-Newt (Triton marmorata) than to any other known species. From this creature indeed it differs principally in the extreme length of its body and the diminutive size of its extremities, which rather resemble small tentacnli than actual legs. The only two known species inhabit the stagnant pools and ditches in the neighbourhood of New Orleans, and those in 1-'lorida, Georgia, and South Carolina. They bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of the ditches, particularly on the approach of winter, and vast numbers of thorn are sometimes found in draining and clearing ponds, at the depth of 3 or 4 feet from the surface. They are also capable of existing on land, hut as their food in all probability exists only in the water, they never voluntarily abandon that element. The two known species, A. didactpla and A. tridaetyla, differ prin cipally in the number of their toes, the one having only two, the other three on each foot.