Alphonso VI., the second king of the house of Braganza, was born in 1643, and succeeded his father in 1656. In 1667 he was compelled by his wife and brother to abdicate the throne, and was banished to the island of Terceira. These acts, which the vices of Alphonso had rendered necessary, were sanctioned by the Cortes in 1668. Alphonso died at Cintra in 1675.
ALPHONSUS a Sancta Maria, or Alphonso de Cartagena, a celebrated Spanish historian, was born at Carthagena in 1396, and died on the 12th July 1456. He succeeded his father, Paulus, as bishop of Burgos. In 1431 he was deputed by Juan II. of Castile to attend the council of Basle, in which he made himself conspicuous by his learning. He was the author of several works, the principal of which is a History of Spain from the earliest times down to the year 1496, printed at Granada in 1545, fol.
ALPINI, Prospero (in Latin Prosper Alpinus), a celebrated physician and botanist, was born at Marostica, in the republic of Venice, on the 23d November 1553. In his youth he served for a time in the Milanese army, but in 1574 he quitted it, and went to Padua to study medi cine. He was admitted to the degree of doctor of physic in 1578, soon after which he left the University, and settled as a physician in Campo San Pietro, a small town in the Paduan territory, at the invitation of its citizens. In the course of his studies he had paid particular attention to botanical science; but the sphere of his present practice was too limited to afford him. much opportunity of prose cuting his favourite study. He wished particularly to extend his knowledge of exotic plants, by observing their economy and habits in their native soil. To gratify this laudable curiosity an opportunity presented itself when George Emo or Hemi, the consul for the Venetian republic in Egypt, appointed Alpini his physician. They sailed from Venice in September 1580, and arrived at Grand Cairo in the following year. Alpini spent three years in Egypt, and by his industry and assiduity greatly im proved his botanical knowledge, having travelled along the banks of the Nile, visited every place, and consulted every person from whom he expected any new information. From a practice in the management of date-trees which he observed in this country, Alpini seems to have deduced the doctrine of the sexual difference of plants, which was adopted as the foundation of the celebrated system of Linnaeus. He says that " the female date-trees or palms do not bear fruit unless the branches of the male and female plants are mixed together; or, as is generally done, unless the dust found in the male sheath or male flowers is sprinkled over the female flowers." His treatise De Medicina jEgyptiorum, contains the first account of the coffee-plant that was published in Europe. When Alpini returned to Venice in 1586 he was appointed physician to Andre Doria, prince of Melfi; and during his residence at Genoa he was esteemed the first physician of his age. The Venetians were unwilling that the Genoese state should number among its citizens a person of such distinguished merit and reputation; and in the year 1593 he was recalled to fill the botanical chair in the university of Padua, with a salary of 200 florins, afterwards increased to 750. He discharged the duties of his professorship for many years with great reputation, till his declining health interrupted his labours. He died of slow fever on the 6th February 1617, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and was succeeded as botanical professor by one of his sons. The genus Alpinia, belonging to the order Zingiberacese, is named after him. Alpini wrote the following works in Latin: 1. De Medicina JEyyptiorum Libri iv., Venice, 1591, 4to; 2. De Plant is ^Egypti Liber, Venice, 1592, 4to; 3. De Bahama Dialogs, Venice, 1592, 4to; 4. De Prcesagienda Vita et Morte jEgrotantium Libri vii., Venice, 1601, 4to; 5. De Medicina Methodica Libri xiii., Padua, 1611, folio; 6. De Kliapontico Dispidatio, Padua, 1612, 4to. Of all these works various editions have appeared; and besides these, two posthumous treatises were published by his son 1. De Plantis Exoticis Libri ii., Venice, 1627, 4to ; 2. Historice Naturalis Egypti Libri iv., Lugd. Bat. 1635, 4to. Several other works of Alpini remain in manuscript.
ALPS
TAKING a general view of the earth's surface, the continent of Europe appears to be no more than a great peninsula extending westward from the much vaster continent of Asia. Its shores are deeply indented by two inland seas connected by narrow straits with the Atlantic Ocean, and these in their turn are divided into gulfs that penetrate still more deeply into the land, and form a number of secondary peninsulas. The Mediterranean Sea, by its branches the Gulf of Genoa, the Adriatic, and the Ægean Sea forms the Iberian, the Italian, and the Greek peninsulas; and the Baltic Sea, extending northward into the Gulf of Bothnia, forms on one side the great Scandinavian peninsula, and on the other that of Denmark. Save the last, all these peninsulas of Europe are essentially mountain regions, traversed by lofty chains that occupy a large portion of their surface. But in height and im portance these are much surpassed by a great mountain zone stretching from the south-east of France to the fron tiers of Hungary, and between Italy and the plains of southern Germany, which is collectively known as the Alps, and which must be considered as the most important feature in the physical geography of our continent. Of the influence of this mountain system on the climate of tha surrounding regions, on the distribution of animal and vegetable life, and, indirectly, on the political condition of Europe, some brief notice will here be given; but it may be well to remark that owing to the peculiar disposition of the greater masses which form this system, the Alps do not present so continuous a barrier as might be expected
from a comparison with other great mountain ranges.