Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/25

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14
ANGKOR—ANGLE


others where it is more or less aborted (series Nudiflorae). Series 6, Apocarpeae, is characterized by 5 carpels, and in the last series Glumaceae, great simplification in the flower is associated with a grass-like habit.

The sequence of orders in the polypetalous subdivision of Dicotyledons undoubtedly represents a progression from simpler to more elaborate forms, but a great drawback to the value of the system is the inclusion among the Monochlamydeae of a number of orders which are closely allied with orders of Polypetalae though differing in absence of a corolla. The German systematist, A. W. Eichler, attempted to remove this disadvantage which since the time of Jussieu had characterized the French system, and in 1883 grouped the Dicotyledons in two subclasses. The earlier Choripetalae embraces the Polypetalae and Monochlamydae of the French systems. It includes 21 series, and is an attempt to arrange as far as possible in a linear series those orders which are characterized by absence or freedom of petals. The second subclass, Gamopetalae, includes 9 series and culminates in those which show the most elaborate type of flower, the series Aggregatae, the chief representative of which is the great and wide-spread order Compositae. A modification of Eichler’s system, embracing the most recent views of the affinities of the orders of Angiosperms, has been put forward by Dr Adolf Engler of Berlin, who adopts the suggestive names Archichlamydeae and Metachlamydeae for the two subdivisions of Dicotyledons. Dr Engler is the principal editor of a large series of volumes which, under the title Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien, is a systematic account of all the known genera of plants and represents the work of many botanists. More recently in Das Pflanzenreich the same author organized a series of complete monographs of the families of seed-plants.

As an attempt at a phylogenetic arrangement, Engler’s system is now preferred by many botanists. More recently a startling novelty in the way of system has been produced by van Tieghem, as follows:

Monocotyledons.
Liorhizal Dicotyledons.
Dicotyledons.
Insemineae.
Semineae.
Unitegmineae.
Bitegmineae.

The most remarkable feature here is the class of Liorhizal Dicotyledons, which includes only the families of Nymphaeaceae and Gramineae. It is based upon the fact that the histological differentiation of the epidermis of their root is that generally characteristic of Monocotyledons, whilst they have two cotyledons—the old view of the epiblast as a second cotyledon in Gramineae being adopted. But the presence of a second cotyledon in grasses is extremely doubtful, and though there may be ground for reconsidering the position of Nymphaeaceae, their association with the grasses as a distinct class is not warranted by a comparative examination of the members of the two orders. Ovular characters determine the grouping in the Dicotyledons, van Tieghem supporting the view that the integument, the outer if there be two, is the lamina of a leaf of which the funicle is the petiole, whilst the nucellus is an outgrowth of this leaf, and the inner integument, if present, an indusium. The Insemineae include forms in which the nucellus is not developed, and therefore there can be no seed. The plants included are, however, mainly well-established parasites, and the absence of nucellus is only one of those characters of reduction to which parasites are liable. Even if we admit van Tieghem’s interpretation of the integuments to be correct, the diagnostic mark of his unitegminous and bitegminous groups is simply that of the absence or presence of an indusium, not a character of great value elsewhere, and, as we know, the number of the ovular coats is inconstant within the same family. At the same time the groups based upon the integuments are of much the same extent as the Polypetalae and Gamopetalae of other systems. We do not yet know the significance of this correlation, which, however, is not an invariable one, between number of integuments and union of petals.

Within the last few years Prof. John Coulter and Dr C. J. Chamberlain of Chicago University have given a valuable general account of the morphology of Angiosperms as far as concerns the flower, and the series of events which ends in the formation of the seed (Morphology of Angiosperms, Chicago, 1903).

Authorities.—The reader will find in the following works details of the subject and references to the literature: Bentham and Hooker, Genera Plantarum (London, 1862–1883); Eichler, Bluthendiagramme (Leipzig, 1875–1878); Engler and Prantl, Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien (Leipzig, 1887–1899); Engler, Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien, 3rd ed. (Berlin, 1903); Knuth, Handbuch der Blutenbiologie (Leipzig, 1898, 1899); Sachs, History of Botany, English ed. (Oxford, 1890); Solereder, Systematische Anatomie der Dicotyledonen (Stuttgart, 1899); van Tieghem, Eléments de botanique; Coulter and Chamberlain, Morphology of Angiosperms (New York, 1903).  (I. B. B.; A. B. R.) 


ANGKOR, an assemblage of ruins in Cambodia, the relic of the ancient Khmer civilization. They are situated in forests to the north of the Great Lake (Tonle-Sap), the most conspicuous of the remains being the town of Angkor-Thom and the temple of Angkor-Vat, both of which lie on the right bank of the river Siem-Reap, a tributary of Tonle-Sap. Other remains of the same form and character lie scattered about the vicinity on both banks of the river, which is crossed by an ancient stone bridge.

Angkor-Thom lies about a quarter of a mile from the river. According to Aymonier it was begun about A.D. 860, in the reign of the Khmer sovereign Jayavarman III., and finished towards A.D. 900. It consists of a rectangular enclosure, nearly 2 m. in each direction, surrounded by a wall from 20 to 30 ft. in height. Within the enclosure, which is entered by five monumental gates, are the remains of palaces and temples, overgrown by the forest. The chief of these are:—

(1) The vestiges of the royal palace, which stood within an enclosure containing also the pyramidal religious structure known as the Phimeanakas. To the east of this enclosure there extends a terrace decorated with magnificent reliefs.

(2) The temple of Bayon, a square enclosure formed by galleries with colonnades, within which is another and more elaborate system of galleries, rectangular in arrangement and enclosing a cruciform structure, at the centre of which rises a huge tower with a circular base. Fifty towers, decorated with quadruple faces of Brahma, are built at intervals upon the galleries, the whole temple ranking as perhaps the most remarkable of the Khmer remains.

Angkor-Vat, the best preserved example of Khmer architecture, lies less than a mile to the south of the royal city, within a rectangular park surrounded by a moat, the outer perimeter of which measures 6060 yds. On the west side of the park a paved causeway, leading over the moat and under a magnificent portico, extends for a distance of a quarter of a mile to the chief entrance of the main building. The temple was originally devoted to the worship of Brahma, but afterwards to that of Buddha; its construction is assigned by Aymonier to the first half of the 12th century A.D. It consists of three stages, connected by numerous exterior staircases and decreasing in dimensions as they rise, culminating in the sanctuary, a great central tower pyramidal in form. Towers also surmount the angles of the terraces of the two upper stages. Three galleries with vaulting supported on columns lead from the three western portals to the second stage. They are connected by a transverse gallery, thus forming four square basins. Khmer decoration, profuse but harmonious, consists chiefly in the representation of gods, men and animals, which are displayed on every flat surface. Combats and legendary episodes are often depicted; floral decoration is reserved chiefly for borders, mouldings and capitals. Sandstone of various colours was the chief material employed by the Khmers; limonite was also used. The stone was cut into huge blocks which are fitted together with great accuracy without the use of cement.

See E. Aymonier, Le Cambodge (3 vols., 1900–1904); Doudart de Lagrée, Voyage d’exploration en Indo-Chine (1872–1873); A. H. Mouhot, Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia and Laos (2 vols., 1864); Fournereau and Porcher, Les Ruines d’Angkor (1890); L. Delaporte, Voyage au Cambodge: l’architecture Khmer (1880); J. Moura, Le Royaume de Cambodge (2 vols., 1883).

ANGLE (from the Lat. angulus, a corner, a diminutive, of which the primitive form, angus, does not occur in Latin; cognate are the Lat. angere, to compress into a bend or to strangle, and the Gr. ἄγκος, a bend; both connected with the Aryan root ank-, to bend: see Angling), in geometry, the inclination of one line or plane to another. Euclid (Elements, book 1) defines a plane angle as the inclination to each other, in a plane, of two lines which meet each other, and do not lie straight with respect to each other (see Geometry, Euclidean). According to Proclus an angle must be either a quality or a quantity, or a relationship. The first concept was utilized by Eudemus, who regarded an angle as a deviation from a straight line; the second by Carpus of Antioch, who regarded it as the interval or space between the intersecting lines; Euclid adopted the third concept, although his definitions of right, acute, and obtuse angles are certainly quantitative. A discussion of